The dollar strengthened to an almost nine-month high against theeuro after European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghisignaled monetary policy will diverge from the U.S. for an extendedperiod of time.

The U.S. currency rose against the majority of its 16 main peersas unemployment claims dropped, pushing the average over the pastmonth to an eight-year low. Russia's ruble declined to athree-month low as political tension in Ukraine deepened.Australia's dollar fell by the most in a month against its U.S.counterpart as traders revived bets the nation's central bank willcut interest rates after unemployment jumped.

“He's mentioned a few times the divergence in monetarypolicies—in a way, he's trying to send the euro lower, he justwants to remind the market [that] fundamentals are not supportingthe euro,” Charles St-Arnaud, London-based senior economist atNomura Securities International Inc., said of Draghi. “The initialjobless claims numbers were excellent. They're back to pre-crisislevels.”