Investing.com - The dollar remained at eight-year highs against the yen and broadly stronger against a basket of other major currencies in quiet trade on Wednesday as expectations for higher U.S. interest rates later this year continued to bolster demand for the greenback.
USD/JPY was up 0.44% to 123.63, the most since July 2008 from 123.08 late Tuesday.
Demand for the dollar continued to be underpinned after data on Tuesday showed that U.S. business investment plans increased, consumer confidence improved and house prices extended gains.
The upbeat data supported the view that the Federal Reserve could start to raise interest rates later in the year if the economy continues to improve as expected.
In Japan, Wednesday’s minutes of the central bank’s April meeting showed policymakers pushed back the time frame for achieving its 2% inflation target, fuelling expectations for additional monetary easing later this year.
EUR/USD was down 0.36% to one-month lows of 1.0834, after rising to session highs of 1.0930 earlier.
The single currency found some support after the Greek government expressed confidence to that it would make a €305 million payment to the International Monetary Fund due on June 5.
Athens had previously warned that it would be unable to make the repayment if a cash-for-reforms deal with its international lenders was not reached by then.
Greek officials were to resume negotiations in Brussels with the country’s creditors later Wednesday.
The pound was also lower, with GBP/USD shedding 0.29% to 1.5338, while the Swiss franc held steady, with USD/CHF at 0.9532.
The commodity linked currencies were also broadly weaker, with AUD/USD down 0.39% to 0.7705 and NZD/USD at 0.7226.
USD/CAD rose 0.20% to 1.2458 ahead of the Bank of Canada’s latest monetary policy announcement later in the day.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.38% at five-week highs of 97.75.