NEW YORK, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar declined against most major currencies in late trading on Thursday, as the rally earlier this week lost momentum.

Investors had been selling riskier assets for the safer greenback amid stock market turmoil.

On the economic front, in the week ending Feb. 3, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 221,000, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 230,000, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.

The four-week moving average was 224,500, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's unrevised average of 234,500. This is the lowest level for this average since March 10, 1973 when it was 222,000.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 0.02 percent to 90.237 at 3:00 p.m. (2000 GMT).

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.2260 dollars from 1.2276 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound climbed to 1.3920 dollars from 1.3880 dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar decreased to 0.7799 dollar from 0.7822 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 108.90 Japanese yen, lower than 109.49 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar declined to 0.9367 Swiss franc from 0.9429 Swiss francs, and it moved up to 1.2589 Canadian dollars from 1.2568 Canadian dollars.