Currencies and Economic News

In the currency market, the dollar edged marginally higher against the euro. Late Thursday, the euro was trading at $1.5812 vs. $1.5823 on Wednesday.

“Risk appetite is rising. With commodities coming off the boil, that's dollar-positive as well,” said Andrew Wilkinson, senior market analyst at Interactive Brokers.

The Commerce Department reported that new construction on single-family homes fell 5.3%, to a fresh 17-year low, but the headline was that home building projects started in June surprisingly rose 9.1 percent in June, due chiefly to a change in New York City building codes. Absent that change, starts would have decreased by 4%.

In other economic news, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said manufacturing in the region weakened for an eighth straight month in July, while a key inflation gauge rose to the highest level in more than 28 years.

Three-fourths of companies surveyed reported paying higher prices for inputs, while only a third said they were able to raise their own prices. The prices-paid index rose to 75.6, the highest since March 1980.

And the buck may have been undermined by a report in the Financial Times, which said that large Asian and Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds are seeking to further trim their exposure to the greenback. The unsourced report said an unidentified Gulf fund has cut its dollar-denominated holdings to less than 60% from more than 80% a year ago.