Investing.com - The dollar inched down on Wednesday, but remained near a 16-month high as upbeat data and rising Treasury yields increased demand for the greenback.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a basket of six major currencies, inched down 0.13% to 96.88 as of 11:41 AM ET (15:41 GMT).
Private sector payrolls in the U.S. rose by the most in eight months in October, data showed ahead of the government nonfarm payrolls data on Friday.
U.S. private employers added 227,000 jobs in October, above economists' expectations of a gain of 189,000 jobs.
Meanwhile the yield on the benchmark United States 10-Year rose to a 1-week high of 3.149%.
The dollar rose against the Japanese yen, with USD/JPY inching up 0.03% to 113.14. The Canadian dollar was slightly lower, with USD/CAD up 0.07% to 1.3117.
EUR/USD inched down 0.08% to 1.1363, not far from a session low of 1.1347. The euro has been under pressure by political uncertainty in Germany and an ongoing feud between Rome and Brussels over Italy’s budget.
Sterling was higher with GBP/USD up 0.75% to 1.2800 as news of a possible Brexit deal as early as Nov. 21 boosted sentiment.
Elsewhere, the Australian dollar was lower, with AUD/USD falling 0.20% to 0.7093 and NZD/USD decreasing 0.27% to 0.6534.