2013.12.2613:19:00UTC+00Dollar Trading Mixed Thursday

The dollar is slightly weaker against its major European competitors on Thursday, but is holding onto early gains against the Japanese Yen. Trading action has been light today, due to yesterday's Christmas holiday. A number of global markets remain closed Thursday, including the majority of Europe.

Reflecting the volatility seen during the holiday season, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing a steep drop in initial jobless claims in the week ended December 21st following the sharp jump seen earlier in the month.

The report said initial jobless claims tumbled to 338,000, a decrease of 42,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 380,000. Economists had expected claims to drop to 340,000 from the 379,000 originally reported for the previous week.

The Labor Department has previously warned that the numbers around the holidays will be volatile due to the difficulty of performing seasonal adjustments.

Bank of Japan policymakers agreed on the assessment that the economy is set to continue its moderate recovery, but some did express concern over the slowing pace of growth, minutes of the November 20-21 meeting showed on Thursday.

Further, members of the Bank of Japan Policy Board concurred that inflation expectations were rising on the whole.

At the end of a two-day meeting in November, the nine-member Policy Board led by Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, decided to keep the target for the monetary base expansion at an annual pace of JPY 60-70 trillion.

The dollar jumped to an early 4-year high of Y104.823 against the Japanese Yen and has largely held onto those gains, currently hovering around Y104.700.

Japan's housing starts rose more-than-expected in November, data released by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism showed Thursday. Housing starts grew 14.1 percent year-on-year, following a 7.1 percent increase in the previous month. Economists were looking for a gain of 9.2 percent.

The annualized number of housing starts totaled 1.033 million, down from 1.037 million in October. Economists had forecast a figure of 989,000.

The greenback has weakened to around $1.3700 against the Euro on Thursday, from Tuesday's high of $1.3654.

The buck has also dropped to around $1.6430 against the pound sterling, its lowest level since December 18th, from around the $1.6340 level earlier today.