NEW YORK: Major currencies gyrated between modest gains and losses on Thursday as markets tried to digest European Central Bank comments on interest rate policy amid new evidence in the United States of a stronger economic recovery.

The euro edged higher, toyed with a bigger gain and then fell back after the European Central kept its interest rate policy intact and left questions about how it will withdraw stimulus when the economy recovers.

The euro was up on the day about 0.1% against the US dollar when the central bank posted its statement, and briefly doubled as ECB chief Christine Lagarde spoke afterward citing “signs of improvement” under clouds of economic uncertainty, before slipping back.

At mid-morning in New York the euro was off 0.24% to $1.2007 and the dollar index against major currencies was up 0.28% to 91.355.

In cryptocurrency markets, ethernet jumped as much as 10%, while bitcoin rose 3% to $55,400 at 1235 GMT.