LONDON: The dollar hit a four-week high against the yen on Tuesday and rose against a basket of currencies on the prospect of US jobs data later this week fuelling expectations the Federal Reserve will scale back stimulus.
But the dollar stayed below reported options barriers at 100 yen, with many investors wary of taking fresh positions before a US holiday on Thursday and Friday's monthly payrolls report.
The dollar rose 0.2 percent to 99.91 yen, its highest since June 5, with traders reporting offers just ahead of 100 yen. It was buoyed by data on Monday showing a rebound in US manufacturing activity.
Strong jobs data would boost the dollar by fanning speculation about an early paring back of the Fed's $85-billion-a-month bond buying. The dollar index was up 0.15 percent at 83.17, near Friday's one-month high of 83.344.
"We expect the dollar to appreciate a bit more and the euro to drop towards $1.29 as the Fed will at some point start to unwind its stimulus programme," said Marcus Hettinger, currency strategist at Credit Suisse.
The euro fell 0.25 percent to $1.3030, off last week's trough of $1.29845, its lowest since early June.
But it held below resistance at the 200-day moving average at $1.3075, with traders wary before a European Central Bank meeting on Thursday.
US factory order data for May is due on Tuesday. Good data of late has been helping the dollar, especially against the yen, which in turn is expected to lose ground as the Bank of Japan adds trillions through its quantitative easing programme.
"The US ISM data was a tad better than expected, so that supports expectations of a tapering of QE, but it wasn't strong enough to bring those expectations very much forward," said Niels Christensen, currency strategist at Nordea in Copenhagen.
He saw the dollar breaking above 100 yen this week. Dollar/yen has lately moved in tandem with Japanese stocks, which rose on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Australian dollar fell 0.5 percent to $0.9191, just above Monday's three-year low of $0.9110, after the Reserve Bank of Australia kept the door open to rate cuts, in part due to a still-high currency.
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