The dollar strengthened against the euro and sterling, as US weekly jobless claims data came in well below expectations. The number of people filing new claims for unemployment insurance fell by 5,000 to 293,000 in the week ended May 12, the lowest level of claims since the week ended Jan 13. This was well below analysts' expectations for a pick-up in the number of claims to 323,000 after last week's revised fall to 298,000. The four-week average of first-time claims fell 12,000 to 305,500, the lowest level since April 2006. "The fall suggests the US labour market remains tight and the long awaited real estate-led US slowdown is not happening as quickly as the dollar bears would like," said Jamie Coleman at Thomson's IFR Markets. At 1.45 pm the euro was trading at 1.3489 usd, having been at 1.3510 shortly before the figures came out. The pound was also much lower against the greenback, trading at 1.9739 compared to 1.9764 before the data release