12:31 PM EDT, 04/18/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The US dollar paired losses against major currencies during North American trade midday Thursday following hawkish comments from a prominent Federal Reserve policymaker and better-than-expected economic data.

Lower-than-expected unemployment claims and an unexpected rise in the Philly Fed Manufacturing Index underscored the strength in the economy and dented hopes for a sooner rather than later Fed rate cut, helping the dollar pare widespread losses.

New York Fed President John Williams offered the more notable tailwind to the greenback after reportedly telling the Semafor World Economy Summit that he is in no rush to cut interest rates, and would actually support the Fed reverting to raising interest rates if the incoming economic data calls for it.

The dollar was quoted higher against Japanese yen, Swiss franc, and Norwegian Krone following going into the North American noon but was otherwise lower against all G10 currencies. In the G20 sphere, the greenback notched up its largest gains over the South African rand, Mexican Peso, and Chinese renminbi.

A quick summary of foreign exchange activity heading into the US lunch hour:

EUR/USD was trading 0.07% lower at 1.0658 after falling from an intraday high of 1.0690 and remained below Wednesday's closing level of 1.0670. The single currency had appeared from early in the European session after the Euro Area current account surplus came in lower than was expected for February.

European Central Bank policymakers including Christine Lagarde and Mario Centeno had, on Wednesday, called into question earlier market assumptions about the likely scale of widely expected ECB interest rate cuts. This appeared to boost the euro late in the Wednesday session though Thursday's speakers, including Olli Rehn, Robert Holzmann, Martins Kazaks, Joachim Nagel and Francois Villeroy had little obvious impact on the single currency.

Elsewhere in Europe, GBP/USD was trading 0.10% higher at 1.2459 after lifting off an intraday low around 1.2435 following comments from Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member Megan Greene. Greene reportedly told an Atlantic Council audience that she doesn't believe interest rate cuts are likely any time soon due to the current high level of wage growth and because of still-high inflation in the UK services sector. Next up for sterling is the release of UK retail sales data on Friday.

USD/JPY, meanwhile, was trading 0.15% higher at 154.61 as the yen vied with the Norwegian krone for the bottom of the G10 currency bucket on the day. Previously, the Japanese yen overlooked a Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry report suggesting tertiary industry activity rose 1.5% in February, an improvement on the 0.5% fall in January and ahead of the consensus for a 0.4% increase.

The Japanese currency also got no help previously on Wednesday when finance ministers of Japan, South Korea and the US released a joint statement expressing concern about recently sharp losses of the yen and won. The South Korean won, on the other hand, was the best performing currency in the G20 basket on Thursday. For the yen attention now turns to the 19:30 ET release of the nation core CPI number from the Statistics Bureau. Consensus suggests this will ebb from 2.8% to 2.7%.

USD/CAD was trading 0.10% lower at 1.3757 after being quoted as low as 1.3741 earlier in the session. USD/CAD was down from the intraday high of 1.3838 seen previously in Wednesday's trading session. Thursday's price action placed the Canadian dollar around the middle of the G10 rankings amid a dearth of local economic newsflow.