Investing.com - The dollar edged up to fresh three-month highs against the other major currencies on Friday, investors eyed the release of U.S. employment data later in the day amid growing expectations for a December rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
The dollar was higher against the euro, with EUR/USD down 0.10% at 1.0872, not far from Thursday's three-month low of 10831.
The dollar remained broadly supported after Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on Wednesday that a December rate hike is a "live possibility," depending on the data.
Investors were turning their attention to Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for further indications on the strength of the job market.
Markets shrugged off a report by the U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday showing that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending October 31 increased by 16,000 to 276,000 from the previous week’s total of 260,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 2,000 to 262,000.
USD/JPY edged up 0.11% to trade at 121.89, re-approaching Thursday's two-and-a-half month peak of 122.01.
Earlier Friday, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda warned that a deeper-than-expected slowdown in China and other emerging economies was the biggest risk facing Japan's economic outlook.
Kuroda added that the BOJ will not hesitate to ease its monetary policy if necessary to support the economy, although he said Japan can hit the central bank's 2% inflation target without additional stimulus for now.
Elsewhere, the dollar was higher against the pound, with GBP/USD down 0.43% at a one-month low of 1.5140 and was steady against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF at 0.9954.
Sterling showed little reaction to a report by the U.K. Office for National Statistics showing that manufacturing production rose 0.8% in September, beating expectations for a 0.4% gain.
The report also showed that U.K. industrial production fell 0.2% in September, compared to expectations for a 0.1% downtick.
Another report showed that the U.K. trade deficit narrowed to £9.35 billion in September from a revised deficit of £10.79 billion in August. Analysts had expected the trade deficit to narrow to £10.60 billion in September.
The Australian dollar was higher, with AUD/USD up 0.15% at 0.7152, while NZD/USD slipped 0.15% to 0.6605.
In its monetary policy statement released on Friday, the Reserve Bank of Australia said that local economic conditions had improved over recent months, but it lowered its underlying inflation rate projections to around 2.0% for most of next year, down from its earlier forecast of 2.5%.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD added 0.14% to trade at 1.3184.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.12% at 98.20, the highest level since July 20.