Investing.com - The dollar held onto modest gains against other major currencies on Thursday, as concerns surrounding news that China may halt its U.S. bond purchases continued to ease.
China’s foreign exchange regulator said on Thursday that a report about Beijing slowing or halting its U.S. bond buying may be based on erroneous information and could be "fake".
The dollar weakened broadly on Wednesday after Bloomberg reported that Chinese officials reviewing foreign-exchange holdings had recommended slowing or halting purchases of U.S. bonds. China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt.
The greenback was already vulnerable after the Bank of Japan trimmed the size of its bond purchases on Tuesday, sparking speculation that it could start to scale back its monetary stimulus later this year.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.10% at 92.20 by 05:15 a.m. ET (09:15 GMT).
The euro was steady, with EUR/USD at 1.1944, while GBP/USD slipped 0.11% to 1.3493.
The yen and the Swiss franc were weaker, with USD/JPY up 0.15% at 111.61 and with USD/CHF adding 0.14% to 0.9795.
Elsewhere, the Australian and New Zealand dollars were higher, with AUD/USD up 0.38% at 0.7873 and with NZD/USD edging 0.08% higher to 0.7205.
Earlier Thursday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said retail sales increased by 1.2% November, beating expectations for an uptick of 0.4% and after a 0.5% rise the previous month.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD rose 0.12% to 1.2563.