In the currency market, the dollar slipped again vs. the euro. Late Thursday, the euro was trading at $1.371 vs. $1.3618 on Wednesday.

The buck declined despite a rare bit of good news, as the Labor Department reported that initial jobless claims unexpectedly fell by 24,000, to 467,000, in the week ending January 3. That marked the lowest level in almost three months.

But continuing jobless claims, an indication of the difficulty in finding a new job, rose 45,000 to 4.47 million, the highest level since November 1982.

Sterling also gained ground on the dollar, in the wake of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee cutting interest rates by 50 basis points, to 1.5%. That’s an all-time low for the benchmark rate, stretching back to the BoE’s founding in 1694.

Despite the cut, the pound benefited because the BoE “claimed that the pound’s significant drop and falling inflation will provide stimulus to the economy,” wrote John Rivera, currency analyst at DailyFX. “The comments were somewhat hawkish and left doubts of further easing, which sent the pound up.”

And in outlining his coming massive stimulus proposal, president-elect Obama said that “if nothing is done, this recession could linger for years.” Obama added that, “I don’t believe it’s too late to change course, but it will be if we don’t take dramatic action as soon as possible,” and he told congressional leaders he wants to work with them to get a plan passed “in the next few weeks.”

Source: Dollar Loses Ground Against Euro