Investing.com - The dollar traded near 16-month highs against its rivals Wednesday on data showing the private labor market remained robust. But gains were limited by a rise in sterling on hopes of a Brexit deal.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, rose by 0.11% to 96.90.
On the labor market front, private payrolls grew by 227,000 for the month, above the 218,000 seen in September, according to a report released Wednesday by ADP) and Moody's Analytics. That beat economists’ forecasts of 189,000.
The upbeat private labor data came as a surprise to some analysts, who were expecting private-job gains would be constrained by fallout from Hurricane Florence.
The ADP (NASDAQ:ADP) report was strong because a key component of ADP's model is official payroll data from the previous month, which were depressed by Hurricane Florence, Pantheon said.
"We thought (Hurriance Florence) would be a real constraint on the October ADP estimate," it said.
The strong gains in the private job market comes two days ahead of the closely watched government nonfarm payrolls report.
Still, gains in the greenback were limited by an uptick in sterling after a letter by Brexit Minister Dominic Raab indicated that the U.K and EU could reach consensus on a Brexit deal by Nov. 21.
But sterling gave up some gains against the dollar after UK Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman declined to comment on the Brexit deal date.
"I can't go beyond repeating, as I have done many times, that we've always said we want to conclude this as soon as possible," May's spokesman said, when asked about Raab's letter.
GBP/USD rose 0.45% to $1.2763, but remained below session highs of $1.2831.
EUR/USD fell 0.33% to $1.1306 pressured by weaker-than-expected retail sales growth in Germany.
USD/CAD, meanwhile, rose 0.40% to C$1.3162 as the loonie struggled to leverage stronger-than-expected growth data from Canada.
USD/JPY fell 0.10% to Y113.02.