Investing.com - The dollar was holding steady below recent peaks on Thursday as heightened expectations for a rate hike by the Federal Reserve next month continued to underpin investors demand.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was little changed at 99.05, holding below Tuesday’s highs of 99.55, the most since April 14.
EUR/USD was at 1.0747, after falling to lows of 1.0673 on Tuesday, the weakest level since April 23.
Against the yen the euro was also almost flat, with EUR/JPY at 132.02.
The dollar was also little changed against the Japanese currency, with USD/JPY at 122.9, off the two-and-a-half month high of 123.59 set on Monday.
The dollar has been boosted since last week’s robust U.S. jobs report for October paved the way for the Fed to hike rates at its December meeting and underlined the diverging monetary policy expectations between the Fed and other world central banks.
Investors were looking ahead to speeches by several Fed officials later in the day, including Chair Janet Yellen, for further indications on the prospect of a December lift off.
The U.S. was also to release the weekly report on initial jobless claims.
Elsewhere, the Australian dollar rallied after stronger than expected domestic jobs report was seen as reducing the chances of further rate cuts by the country’s central bank.
Official data showed that the Australian economy added 58,600 new jobs in October, easily beating forecasts for jobs growth of 15,000.
AUD/USD hit highs of 0.7154 following the report, and was last at 0.7135.