By Anneken Tappe, MarketWatch

Dollar, euro remain rangebound and muted

The British pound eked out a gain against the U.S. dollar Thursday, as London politicking around an alternative Brexit plan continues.

The Brexit-sensitive British pound fetched $1.2988, up 0.8% at a two-month high, benefiting from no outright bad news on the Brexit front in the day so far, but the market sentiment that a no-deal Brexit is becoming less likely.

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May was holding cross-party Brexit talks but hadn't raised extending the exit date beyond March 29 with Brussels so far, a spokesperson of the prime minister said, according to reports. Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn allegedly boycotted and later tweeted a letter (https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/1085892746668331008) to May demanding that a no-deal Brexit had to be ruled out before talks began. May responded with her own missive (https://twitter.com/jessicaelgot/status/1085945047151976451), expressing her disappointment in Corbyn's failure to come to the negotiating table.

May's government on Wednesday narrowly survived a vote of no-confidence (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/theresa-mays-government-narrowly-survives-no-confidence-vote-2019-01-16) brought by the Labor party a day after the premier's Brexit deal was voted down in a landslide (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/after-historic-brexit-defeat-whats-next-2019-01-15) by parliamentarians on Tuesday.

See:What is a no-confidence vote? (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/what-is-a-no-confidence-vote-2019-01-16)

Read:3 reasons why investors outside of the U.K. should care about Brexit (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/brexit-vote-3-reasons-investors-outside-of-the-uk-should-care-2019-01-14)

The government has until Monday to offer up an alternative deal, with parliament to provide time to debate and vote on the next Brexit steps on Jan. 29. The government published a paper on Thursday, saying a second Brexit referendum would take more than a year to organize.

Elsewhere, the U.S. dollar and its main rival, the euro, remained rangebound, as traders awaited fresh drivers. The ICE U.S. Dollar Index was little changed at 96.078, while the euro ticked down slight, buying $1.1387, versus $1.1393 late Wednesday.

Also check out:Why the South African rand and Colombian peso appear most at risk for selloffs in 2019 (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-the-south-african-rand-and-colombian-peso-appear-most-at-risk-for-selloffs-in-2019-2019-01-17)

The thematic backdrop was largely the same on Thursday as earlier in the week. Dollar traders were focusing on news about trade relations and the partial government shutdown, now on day 27. In economic data, jobless claims fell in the latest week (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/jobless-claims-fall-but-more-federal-workers-seek-aid-as-government-shutdown-drags-on-2019-01-17), but revealed that more furloughed federal workers were collecting benefits. Meanwhile, a measure of the Philadelphia-area economy (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/philadelphia-fed-manufacturing-index-rebounds-in-january-2019-01-17) recovered sharply in early January.

Read:Why stock-market investors are starting to worry about the government shutdown (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-stock-market-investors-are-starting-to-worry-about-the-government-shutdown-2019-01-16)

In other European news, the final reading of December consumer-price inflation in the eurozone came in at the lowest level since April, at 1.6%. All this comes just one week ahead of the European Central Bank's first meeting of 2019 and shortly after ECB President Mario Draghi said economic developments were weaker than expected (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/euro-falls-to-session-lows-as-ecbs-draghi-says-economy-has-been-weaker-than-expected-2019-01-15).

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 17, 2019 15:38 ET (20:38 GMT)