U.S. Dollar Higher After Strong PPI Data

(RTTNews) - The U.S. dollar firmed against its major counterparts in the New York session on Thursday, as hotter-than-expected producer inflation data for February prompted investors to slightly scale back expectations for a rate cut in June.

Data from the Labor Department showed that the producer price index climbed by 0.6 percent in February after rising by 0.3 percent in January. Economists had expected producer prices to rise by another 0.3 percent.

The report also said the annual rate of producer price growth accelerated to 1.6 percent in February from a revised 1.0 percent in January.

Economists had expected the year-over-year price growth to rise to 1.1 percent from the 0.9 percent originally reported for the previous month.

A separate data showed that first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits edged slightly lower in the week ended February 9.

The report said initial jobless claims slipped to 209,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's revised level of 210,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 218,000 from the 217,000 originally reported for the previous week.

The greenback firmed to 1-week highs of 1.0882 against the euro and 1.2730 against the pound, from an early low of 1.0954 and a 2-day low of 1.2823, respectively. The greenback is likely to find resistance around 1.06 against the euro and 1.24 against the pound.

The greenback advanced to 1-week highs of 148.32 against the yen and 0.6569 against the aussie, off its early lows of 147.42 and 0.6631, respectively. The currency is likely to locate resistance around 153.00 against the yen and 0.64 against the aussie.

The greenback climbed to 8-day highs of 1.3534 against loonie and 0.6122 against the kiwi, from an early low of 1.3459 and a 2-day low of 0.6631, respectively. Immediate resistance for the currency is seen around 1.37 against loonie and 0.60 against the kiwi.

The greenback touched 0.8838 against the franc, setting an 8-day high. Should the greenback continues its uptrend, 0.90 is possibly seen as its next resistance level.