The US dollar rose on Thursday, to consolidate above the 27-month low it hit earlier in Asian trade, to rebound ahead of the US weekly unemployment claims.

The dollar index rose 0.2% to 92.96, after opening at 92.77, and hit an intraday low and the lowest since May 2018 at 92.52.

The index lost 0.75% yesterday, posting its second daily loss, as sell-off of the US dollar continued.

The US dollar's losses are mainly due to disappointing data about new jobs in the US private sector for July, which raised concerns over the US economy recovery from the coronavirus pandemic

The US dollar is also being weighed down by the ongoing political debate between the Democratic and the Republican parties over the new relief bill.

Investors are anticipating key economic data releases today on the US labor market, amid the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis that forced the US to tighten the public lockdown restrictions once again in some cities and states.

At 12:30 GMT, the US economy will release the unemployment claims reading, with forecasts to reach 1.410 million during the week ending August 1.

The US economy closure since mid-March has forced around 53.5 million American workers to apply for unemployment benefits, and pushed the US unemployment rate to its all-time high of 14.7% during April.

European stocks fell at opening on Thursday, to head for the second loss in 3 sessions, with London's stock market leading the losses, after the Bank of England issued a gloomy outlook at the end of its monetary policy meeting.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 0.4% as of 10:15 GMT, after it gained 0.5% yesterday, after basic materials sector stocks surged.

The pan European index opened lower today, with most of the major European markets and sectors seeing red today.

The mining and basic materials sector saw the largest losses in Europe today, with a drop of over 1.7%.

The Bank of England held the interest rates unchanged today, and warned against slashing interest rates below zero, in addition to saying the economy will not recover to its pre-pandemic levels until the end of 2021.

S&P 500 futures rose 0.1%, after the index closed higher by 0.6% yesterday at Wall Street, on hopes for an agreement on the next US relief bill.

Back to Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 index fell 0.5%, France's CAC 40 fell 0.6%, Germany's DAX lost 0.2%, and the UK's FTSE 100 lost 1.3%.

Oil prices turned lower on Thursday on profit-taking, to head for the first daily loss in 5 days, while today's loss is being ebbed as concerns recede about the US oversupply. 

US crude fell 1.3% to $41.64 a barrel, while Brent fell 0.8% to $44.88 a barrel. 

US crude rallied 1.7% on Wednesday, the fourth profit in a row, marking a five-month high at $43.50 a barrel, while Brent rose 2.25% to the highest since March at $46.22. 

Oil's gains came after the US Energy Administration reported a drop in commercial inventories by 7.4 million barrels in the week ending July 31, passing estimates of a 3.4 million.

Total stocks tumbled to 518.5 million barrels, the lowest since April 10 in a positive sign for US demand. 

US output fell 100 thousand bpd last week to a total of 11 million bpd, while remaining the world's top producer.

At 08:00 GMT, the Bank of England (BoE) released the summary of the Monetary Policy Committee's vote at the end of its meeting on August 6, which showed that all members have voted to keep the interest rates unchanged at 0.10%, and all 9 members voted in favour of holding the asset purchase programme at £745 billion, after 8 members voted for increasing the programme by £100 billion in the previous meeting.