EUR & GBP Buoyed by Korman Tam

The dollar relinquished its earlier gains against the majors, slipping back beneath the1.50-level versus the euro and remaining mired past the 1.66-handle against the British pound. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 were higher on the session, while crude oil held steady above the $80 per barrel mark. The initial catalyst for the greenback’s reprieve was speculation overnight that China would soon mitigate its economic stimulus packages, tempering the shift to riskier assets.

There was a barrage of G7 economic reports released on Thursday. The US data included weekly jobless claims, the September leading economic indicators index and August monthly home prices. Weekly jobless claims unexpectedly crept higher to 531k from an upwardly revised 520k in the previous week. The August monthly home price index revealed further declines, down 0.3% versus a 0.3% increase in July and lower by 3.6% compared with a year earlier at -4.2%. Lastly, the September leading economic indicators index beat consensus estimates, climbing to 1.0% from a downwardly revised 0.4% from August.