The dollar was buoyant on Thursday, hovering at a near three-week high as Treasury yields rose and appetite for riskier currencies dimmed, while the yen briefly surged after breaching 150.50 per dollar, keeping traders jittery about intervention.
The Japanese yen weakened to hit a fresh one-year low of 150.78 per dollar and was not far off the 32-year low of 151.94 it touched in October last year, which led to Japanese authorities intervening in the currency market.
It briefly strengthened sharply to 149.865 before rebounding to its current level at 150.50, but analysts said this was unlikely to be intervention.
Investor focus will be on the policy decision from the European Central Bank later in the day, with the euro touching a week low of $1.0533 earlier in the session. The single currency was last down 0.2% at $1.0545.
Sterling was last at $1.2081, down 0.2% on the day, having touched a three-week low of $1.2070 earlier in the session.
Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was 0.2% higher at 106.75 after touching a near three-week peak of 106.88.
The Australian dollar slid to a one-year low of $0.6271 and was last flat at $0.6309.
A surprisingly high reading for inflation on Wednesday stoked expectations of a further hike in interest rates.
The head of Australia's central bank on Thursday said the strong third-quarter inflation report was around policymakers' expectations, and they were still considering whether it would warrant a rate rise.
The New Zealand dollar touched a near one-year low of $0.5774 and was last unchanged at $0.5802.
The Canadian dollar fell 0.1% versus the greenback to 1.38 per dollar after the Bank of Canada on Wednesday held its key overnight rate at 5.0% as expected but left the door open to more rate hikes to tame inflation.
The Fed and the BOJ meet next week.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin last rose 0.6% to $34,714. The world's largest cryptocurrency has surged 15% this week on the back of speculation that an exchange-traded bitcoin fund is imminent.
Source: Reuters
