1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar falls against euro on Greek bailout

The U.S. dollar dropped against the euro as the Greek parliament passed a bill on a second batch of reforms in line with an international bailout to avert bankruptcy.

The shared currency was 0.65 percent up against the greenback in late trading on the positive move of Athens toward a bailout.

Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar pared some losses as the closely- watched jobless claims data from the country came out better than expected.

In the week ending July 18, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims registered 255,000, a decrease of 26,000 from the previously week's unrevised level, according to U. S. Labor Department Thursday.

The latest reading was the lowest level since November 24, 1973 and beat market consensus of 279,000.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major currencies, was last down 0.50 percent at 97.109.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1002 dollars from 1.0908 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound dropped to 1.5515 dollars from 1.5602 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar decreased to 0.7361 dollar from 0. 7373 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 123.81 Japanese yen, lower than 124.07 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar slipped to 0.9575 Swiss franc from 0.9611 Swiss franc, and it inched up to 1.3038 Canadian dollars from 1.3032 Canadian dollars. Endite