By Ye Xie and Lukanyo Mnyanda Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar traded within a penny of the lowest level versus the euro in a year as a gain in housing starts and an unexpected drop in initial jobless claims spurred investors to sell the greenback and buy higher-yielding assets. The yen fell against the South Korean won and pound as the prospects for a global economic recovery buoyed the risk trade. The Swiss franc was little changed at near the highest level since July 2008 even as the central bank signaled it will maintain its stance against a stronger currency. “It’s tough to buck this trend of dollar weakness,” said Sacha Tihanyi, a currency strategist at Scotia Capital Inc. in Toronto. “The numbers are reasonably positive. In the current environment, it’s hard to call a turn.” The dollar traded at $1.4711 per euro at 8:56 a.m. in New York, compared with $1.4709 yesterday. It reached $1.4767, the weakest level since Sept. 25, 2008. The yen lost 0.4 percent to 91.26 per dollar, from 90.93 yesterday, when it appreciated to 90.13, the strongest since Feb. 12. Japan’s currency slid 0.4 percent to 134.26 per euro, from 133.78. The franc was little changed at 1.0327 versus the dollar after the Swiss National Bank held the three-month London interbank offered rate target at 0.25 percent. The central bank said in a teleconference from Zurich that it would continue to counter the franc’s appreciation. The currency earlier advanced to 1.0285, the strongest level in more than a year. Jobless Claims U.S. applications for unemployment benefits dropped by 12,000 to 545,000 in the week ended Sept. 12, from a revised 557,000 the week before, Labor Department data showed today. Economists forecast weekly claims would rise to 557,000 from a previously reported 550,000, according to the median of 34 projections in a Bloomberg News survey. Builders in the U.S. broke ground in August on the most houses in nine months. Housing starts rose 1.5 percent to an annual rate of 598,000, the Commerce Department reported.

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