NEW YORK, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. dollar rose slightly on Thursday amid strong economic data.

In the week ending Jan. 12, the advance figure for U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough measure of layoffs, was 213,000, down 3,000 from the previous week's unrevised level, the Department of Labor reported on Thursday. The reading was lower than market consensus.

Meanwhile, the more stable four-week moving average was 220,750, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's unrevised average of 221,750.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, rose 0.01 percent at 96.0658 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro was down to 1.1390 dollars from 1.1398 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound rose to 1.2987 dollars from 1.2870 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar increased to 0.7200 dollar from 0.7176 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 109.26 Japanese yen, higher than 108.92 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar increased to 0.9937 Swiss franc from 0.9906 Swiss franc, and it rose to 1.3266 Canadian dollars from 1.3249 Canadian dollars.