NEW YORK, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar went up on Thursday as investors were digesting the latest Federal Reserve statement.

The U.S. central bank on Wednesday decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 1.75 to 2 percent after concluding a two-day policy meeting.

The Fed noted that the U.S. labor market "has continued to strengthen" and the economic activity "has been rising at a strong rate" since policymakers met in June.

On the economic front, the initial jobless claims, a tracker for layoffs in the United States, was 218,000 in the week ending July 28, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's unrevised level, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The 4-week moving average was 214,500, a decrease of 3,500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 218,000.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 0.64 percent at 95.159 in late trading on Thursday.

In late New York trading, the euro was down to 1.1584 dollars from 1.1664 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound decreased to 1.3019 dollars from 1.3127 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar lost to 0.7361 dollar from 0.7399 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 111.70 Japanese yen, higher than 111.57 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar gained to 0.9956 Swiss franc from 0.9919 Swiss franc, and it went up to 1.3027 Canadian dollars from 1.2994 Canadian dollars. Enditem