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

The U.S. dollar hiked against most major currencies on Thursday as investors widely expected that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates by year-end.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers,was up 0.62 percent at 97.948 in late trading.

Most investors held that the U.S. central bank would announce decisions to lift interest rates in its December meeting for the first time in almost a decade next week.

On the U.S. economic front, in the week ending Dec. 5, the advance figure for seasonally adjust initial jobless claims was 282,000, an increase of 13,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 269,000, according to the Labor Department Thursday.

The 4-week moving average was 270,750, an increase of 1,500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 269,250.

In late New York trading, the euro decreased to 1.0936 dollars from 1.1018 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound fell to 1.5159 dollars from 1.5178 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar climbed to 0.7289 dollar from 0.7234 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 121.62 Japanese yen, higher than 121.34 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar climbed to 0.9891 Swiss franc from 0.9838 Swiss franc, and it went up to 1.3618 Canadian dollars from 1.3577 Canadian dollars. Endit