NEW YORK, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar declined in late trading on Thursday as investors digested a batch of major economic data as well as the European Central Bank's (ECB) latest decision to cut rate and buy bonds.

In the week ending Sept. 7, the initial jobless claims fell 15,000 to 204,000 from the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department said on Thursday. The reading hit a nearly five-month low. The four-week moving average also declined to 212,500, down 4,250 from the previous week's level.

In the meantime, the ECB decided to cut its main deposit rate by 10 basis points to minus 0.5 percent and unveiled a massive bond-buying program on Thursday to shore up the sagging euro zone economy.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.34 percent at 98.3151 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1073 dollars from 1.1007 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound rose to 1.2345 dollars from 1.2324 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar was up to 0.6866 dollar from 0.6861 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 108.15 Japanese yen, higher than 107.77 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar decreased to 0.9905 Swiss franc from 0.9929 Swiss franc, and it increased to 1.3211 Canadian dollars from 1.3193 Canadian dollars.