By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The dollar hit a one-year high versus the yen and multi-month peaks with other currencies on Wednesday as investors bet that fiscal stimulus and aggressive vaccinations will help the United States lead a global pandemic recovery.
The dollar index, a gauge of its value against six major currencies, however fell 0.2% to 93.075. But it was on track to post its best quarter since June 2018 with gains of 3.4%.
The index rose as far as 93.439, the highest in almost five months. It has climbed from close to 90 at the start of March, on course for its best month since July 2019.
The greenback held its gains following data showing the U.S. economy added more than 500,000 private sector jobs in February.
U.S. private payrolls increased by 517,000 jobs last month, the ADP National Employment Report showed on Wednesday, slightly lower than market forecasts. Data for February was revised up to show 176,000 jobs added instead of the initially reported 117,000.
“While ADP isn’t a reliable gauge of how nonfarm payrolls might fare, it paints an improving picture of the labor market,” said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions, in a research note.
Wall Street economists are forecasting U.S. non-farm payrolls, due on Friday, of 647,000.
“Given markets’ lofty expectations for March hiring, seen up by 650,000, the dollar could fall prey to the buy the rumor of good news and sell on the fact,” he added.
The dollar set a one-year top of 110.97 yen and was last up 0.3% to 110.625 yen. For the quarter, the dollar posted gains of about 7%, on pace for its best performance since December 2016.
The euro, meanwhile, fell to a five month low versus the dollar at $1.1704, but was last up 0.3% at $1.1746. On the quarter, the euro was on track for its weakest showing since September 2019.
The dollar has been supported overall by a surge in U.S. bond yields, which make the currency more attractive as an investment.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note jumped to a one-year high of 1.776% on Tuesday.
“With U.S. Treasuries meaningfully under pressure yesterday, the environment is clearly supportive for the U.S. dollar, particularly as Europe continues to battle with a third Covid wave,” said ING’s global head of markets, Chris Turner, in a note to clients.
Also later on Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden is set to outline how he intends to pay for a $3 trillion to $4 trillion infrastructure plan, after earlier this week saying 90% of adult Americans would be eligible for vaccination by April 19.
In the cryptocurrency market, bitcoin briefly topped $59,000, trying to close the distance to the record peak at $61,781.83 set earlier this month.
PayPal Holdings said Tuesday it launched a “Checkout with Crypto” service, which will allow U.S. users to use their cryptocurrency holdings to pay online merchants worldwide, adding to the growing global acceptance of the digital tokens on both Wall Street and Main Street.
(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Additional reporting by Ritvik Carvalho in London; Editing by William Maclean)
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