1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar drops after sharp gains

The U.S. dollar declined against other major currencies on Thursday after rising to seven-month highs in the previous two sessions.

The greenback have been firmly supported by market expectation for a year-end interest rate hike.

In the previous session, minutes from Federal Reserve's October meeting showed that the majority of Fed officials agreed that "it may well become appropriate" to raise the benchmark rate in the next policy meeting in December.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, registered at 99.598 in late trading Wednesday, the highest level since April. The index retreated 0.68 percent to 98.975 in late trading Thursday.

On the economic front, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday that in the week ending Nov. 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims were 271,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's unrevised level.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.0733 dollars from 1.0647 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound climbed to 1.5291 dollars from 1.5227 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar hiked to 0.7193 dollar from 0.7091 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 122.83 Japanese yen, lower than 123.55 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar fell to 1.0130 Swiss franc from 1.0196 Swiss franc, and it went down to 1.3291 Canadian dollars from 1.3338 Canadian dollars. Endit