Investing.com - The dollar continued to trade at eight-month highs against the other major currencies on Thursday, as fresh signs of a potential U.S. rate hike this month lent broad support to the greenback.
USD/JPY added 0.17% to 123.45.
The dollar remained supported by mounting expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at its December policy meeting.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on Wedesday that the central bank was still on track to hike rates this month, citing "continued improvement in the labor market" and "confidence that inflation will move back to our 2% objective over the medium term."
The comments came after payroll processing firm ADP said U.S. non-farm private employment rose by 217,000 last month, above expectations for an increase of 190,000.
EUR/USD dropped 0.52% to 1.0558, just qbove Monday's seven-month trough of 1.0556, as investors eyed the European Central Bank's upcoming policy meeting.
The euro remained under pressure as the ECB has been signaling over the past weeks that it is ready to implement additional easing measures in order to boost inflation in the euro zone and support growth.
Adding to stimulus expectations, Eurostat said on Wednesday that the euro zone's consumer price inflation increased by 0.1% last month, missing expectations for a gain of 0.2% and following a 0.1% increase in October.
The rate has now been below 1% for 26 straight months, well under the ECB's target of near but just under 2%.
Elsewhere, the dollar was steady against the pound, with GBP/USD at 1.4944 and with USD/CHF climbing 0.55% to 1.0238.
The pound found some support after Markit said its U.K. services purchasing managers’ index rose to 55.9 last month from October's 54.9. Analysts had expected the index to rise to 55.0.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars were stronger, with AUD/USD up 0.21% at 0.7325 and with NZD/USD rising 0.18% to 0.6653.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday that the country's trade deficit widened to A$3.305 billion in October from A$2.403 billion in September, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of A$2.317 billion.
Analysts had expected the trade deficit to widen to A$2.665 billion in October.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD slipped 0.10% to trade at 1.3328.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.32% at 100.37, near Wednesday's eight-month peak of 100.54.