The dollar held onto gains against other major counterparts on Thursday, as investors continued to focus on U.S. tax reform discussions amid hopes the bill will be passed before Christmas.
The greenback found supported after U.S. Senate Republicans agreed to talks with the House of Representatives on a major tax reform bill on Wednesday, signaling that lawmakers could agree on a final bill ahead of a self-imposed December 22 deadline.
The U.S. dollar was also boosted after data on Wednesday showed that the U.S. private sector added 190,000 jobs in November.
However, investors were still cautious amid potential geopolitcal tensions following President Donald Trump decided to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to move the U.S. embassy there.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.13% at a two-week high of 93.65 by 05:15 a.m. ET (09:15 GMT).
The euro and pound were steady, with EUR/USD at 1.1791 and with GBP/USD at 1.3385 amid ongoing Brexit concerns after the UK and the European Union failed to reach an agreement to move to the next stage of negotiations.
Elsewhere, the yen and Swiss franc were lower, with USD/JPY up 0.35% at 112.66 and with USD/CHF adding 0.16% to 0.9915.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars were weaker, with AUD/USD down 0.46% at 0.7528 and with NZD/USD retreating 0.62% to 0.6840.
Earlier Thursday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said that the trade surplus narrowed to A$0.105 billion in October from A$1.604 billion in September, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated A$1.745 billion.
Analysts had expected the trade surplus to narrow to A$1.401 billion in October.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD gained 0.28% to 1.2825.
