Dollar rises amid European uncertainty, jobless claims

The U.S. dollar rose against most major currencies as Slovakia agreed the expansion of European bailout fund and U.S. initial jobless claims last week slightly dropped. Slovakian parliament approved expanding the European Financial Stability Facility on Thursday, helping stimulate investors' confidence on the euro. However, the European Central Bank warned that forcing private- sector bondholders to take losses on sovereign debt could hurt the euro and the euro zone banking sector. The euro wavered on Thursday's trading on mixed news. The shared currency trimmed losses against the dollar in late trading session. Meanwhile, the U.S. Labor Department said that initial jobless claims dropped 1,000 to 404,000 last week, in line with previous expectations by economists, showing that the job market slightly improved. The Commerce Department reported the trade deficit dipped to 45. 61 billion dollars in August, the lowest level in four months. The dollar edged down 0.03 percent to 76.97 on Thursday. In late Thursday trading, the dollar bought 76.88 Japanese yen, comparing with 77.30 from late Wednesday. The euro fell to 1.3783 dollars from 1.3793. The British pound also fell to 1.5696 dollars from 1.5762. The dollar rose from 0.8944 Swiss francs to 0.8963, and also rose to 1. 0190 Canadian dollars from 1.0147.