The US dollar climbed against the euro on Thursday on the back of positive manufacturing data from Chicago.

The single currency traded hands at $1.3088, down from $1.3136 the previous day.

The ICE dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six other major currencies, climbed to 81.845, up from 81.552 on Wednesday, while the WSJ dollar index climbed from 72.53 to 72.76 over the same period.

This followed the news that the Chicago PMI index increased from 55.6 in January to 56.8 last month, beating consensus expectations of 54.0.

In other US news, the weekly jobless claims report released by the US Department of Labor revealed that initial claims in the week ending February 23rd declined to 344,000 compared to the previous week's reading of 366,000 (revised from 362,000).

The consensus estimate was for a reading of 360,000 claims.

Meanwhile, the pound climbed to $1.5178, compared to $1.5156 the prior day.

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