US dollar rises sharply against euro on Draghi speech

The US dollar advanced against most of major currencies on Thursday. The dollar rose sharply versus the euro after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi expressed concerns over recent appreciation of the euro. Draghi said during a news conference following ECB's policy meeting that it was a sign of renewed confidence in the common currency. However, he also said there are downside risks to inflation stemming from weaker economic activity and, more recently, the appreciation of the euro exchange rate. The ECB also kept the bench market interest rates unchanged. The euro strengthened to a more than one year high last week boosted by recent positive data from the euro zone and contraction of ECB's balance sheet, and several European leaders including French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Merkel have warned euro's strength may hurt the region's exports. On the economic front, last week's new jobless claims in US came in slightly better than the prior level, indicating that the jobs market is improving in a modest and restrained manner. In late New York trading, the euro slid to 1.3403 dollars from 1.3526 dollars of the previous session and the British pound climbed to 1.5712 from 1.5666 dollars. The dollar rose to 0.9179 Swiss francs from 0.9095 and went up to 0.9981 Canadian dollars from 0.9961. The dollar bought 93.54 Japanese yen, higher than 93.39 in the previous session.