Investing.com - The U.S. dollar slumped in light pre-New Year holiday trade on Thursday, slipping from its 14-year-high against a basket of currencies as investors took profits in the run-up to the end of the year.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.3% at 102.93 by 3:40AM ET (08:40GMT), pulling back from last week's 14-year peak of 103.62.
Against the yen, the dollar was down around 0.7% at 116.41, retreating from a 10-1/2 month high of 118.65 set last week.
Meanwhile, the euro rose 0.3% against the greenback to 1.0446, moving away from last week's 13-year low of 1.0352.
Elsewhere, the British pound rebounded 0.25% to 1.2258 against the dollar, after falling to a two-month low of 1.2201 a day earlier.
The greenback slumped after data from the National Association of Realtors’ showed U.S. pending home sales dropped to the lowest level in almost a year in November, a sign the property market could be losing steam.
Since the U.S. election in early November, the dollar has rallied by almost 6% thanks to bets of higher U.S. growth and a faster pace of interest rate increases under incoming president Donald Trump.
The Fed hiked interest rates for the first time in a year earlier this month and projected three more increases in 2017. In contrast, central banks in Europe and Japan remain committed to very loose monetary policies
Higher rates boost the dollar by making the currency more attractive to yield-seeking investors.
The U.S. is to release a weekly report on initial jobless claims at 8:30AM ET (13:30GMT) Thursday, amid expectations for a decline of 11,000 to 264,000 in the week ending December 23.