NEW YORK, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar fell against most major currencies Thursday, as investors mainly focused on the newly-released economic data.

In the week ending Jan. 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 220,000, a decrease of 41,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 261,000, said the labor department on Thursday.

This is the lowest level for initial claims since Feb. 24, 1973 when it was 218,000, the department said.

The four-week moving average was 244,500, a decrease of 6,250 from the previous week's unrevised average of 250,750.

Meanwhile, U.S. privately-owned housing starts in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,192,000.

This is 8.2 percent below the revised November estimate of 1,299,000 and is 6.0 percent below the December 2016 rate of 1,268,000.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 0.03 percent to 90.511 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro increased to 1.2243 dollars from 1.2224 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.3893 dollars from 1.3872 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar lost to 0.7999 dollar from 0.8003 dollar.

The dollar bought 110.99 Japanese yen, lower than 111.12 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar lost to 0.9585 Swiss franc from 0.9625 Swiss franc, and it was up to 1.2431 Canadian dollars from 1.2413 Canadian dollars.