NEW YORK, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar rose against most other major currencies on Thursday as the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to keep its key interest rates unchanged.
At the ECB governing council meeting, it was decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and those on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.00 percent, 0.25 percent and -0.40 percent respectively.
The governing council expects the key ECB interest rates to well pass the horizon of the net asset purchases, said the ECB press release.
Meanwhile, investors kept a close eye on former director of Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) James Comey's testimony on Thursday. Comey said he was confused over the circumstances under which he was fired.
He told the Senate Intelligence Committee in a hearing that the Trump administration had offered "shifting explanations" for his firing, which was confusing and concerning.
The high profile hearing is scheduled to find out the circumstances under which Comey was fired and if Trump had interfered into FBI investigations.
On the economic front, in the week ending June 3, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 245,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's revised level, the U.S. Labor Department announced Thursday.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, increased 0.20 percent at 96.942 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1222 dollars from 1.1257 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound lost to 1.2937 dollars from 1.2951 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar climbed to 0.7547 dollar from 0.7545 dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 109.91 Japanese yen, higher than 109.82 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar gained to 0.9670 Swiss franc from 0.9652 Swiss franc, and it moved down to 1.3505 Canadian dollars from 1.3517 Canadian dollars.
