By Deborah Levine
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Treasury prices held onto slim gains and the dollar stayed under pressure on Thursday after a report showed U.S. first-time jobless claims fell 3,000 to 420,000 in the latest week, better than some economists expected. A separate report showed housing starts rose 3.9% to a 555,000 pace last month. Yields on 10-year notes (UST10Y 3.50, -0.04, -0.99%) , which move inversely to prices, stayed down by 3 basis points to 3.49%. The euro (EURUSD 1.3237, +0.0031, +0.2347%) rose to $1.3244, up from $1.3229 in late North American trading Wednesday. The dollar index (DXY 80.06, -0.20, -0.25%) , a measure of the U.S. unit's performance against a basket of six other currencies, slipped to 80.054, down from 80.190 on Wednesday.
