1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar climbs on rate-hike expectation

The U.S. dollar rose against most major currencies on Thursday as the drop of jobless claims from the country bolstered market expectation for an interest-rate hike later this year.

In the week ending July 11, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial U.S. jobless claims was 281,000, a decrease of 15, 000 from the previous week's revised level, said the U.S. Labor Department Thursday. The latest reading was slightly lower than market consensus of 282,000.

The positive data suggested an improving U.S. labor market and was in accordance with Federal Reserve Chair Yellen's words in the previous session.

Yellen said in her Congressional testimony on Wednesday that she expected "economic conditions likely would make it appropriate at some point this year to raise the federal funds rate."

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, rallied for a second consecutive session on Thursday and was up 0.51 percent at 97.661 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.0875 dollars from 1.0950 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound dipped to 1.5608 dollars from 1.5636 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar hiked to 0.7406 dollars from 0.7374 dollars.

The U.S. dollar bought 124.13 Japanese yen, higher than 123.70 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar rose to 0.9578 Swiss francs from 0.9516 Swiss francs, and it increased to 1.2963 Canadian dollars from 1.2934 Canadian dollars. Endite