In the currency market, the dollar slipped against the euro. Late Thursday, the euro was trading at $1.2917 vs. $1.2837 on Wednesday.

Currency traders were likely distracted by the insane action on the big board, as the Dow and S&P turned triple-digit gains into triple-digit losses before reversing field again and posting solid gains at the end.

With all of the market turmoil, no one is making a call on the buck in the near term.

“We remain extremely cautious in the short run with market conditions likely to remain volatile and, at times, illiquid especially for emerging currencies. Over the long run, we still expect the dollar to trend higher,” wrote currency strategists at Brown Brothers Harriman.

In the day’s hard data, the Labor Department reported that jobless claims rose by 15,000 in the week ending October 18, and the four-week average of continuing claims rose by 44,250 to 3.68 million, the highest in more than five years.

The “underlying outlook for the deteriorating labor market” has worsened, wrote Mike Englund, chief economist for Action Economics. “The ongoing deterioration in the underlying claims trajectory worsens the outlook for the November report, as does the global broadening in the ongoing financial crisis that is inevitably boosting fear among employers.”

“The rise in continuing claims suggests that the unemployment rate moved higher in October,” wrote analysts at RDQ Economics. September’s jobless rate was 6.1%.

Source: Dollar Drops Slightly