Dollar ends slightly higher on risk aversion

The greenback ended the day marginally higher against majority of its peers except the safe-havem yen and Swiss Franc on Wednesday as investors remained cautious about the spread over the new Covid variant Omicron on risk aversion. (Dow ended the day lower at 34,022, down by 461 points or 1.34%)  
  
Reuters reported U.S. private employers maintained a strong pace of hiring in November, though worker shortages remained a challenge.    Private payrolls increased by 534,000 jobs last month, the ADP National Employment Report showed on Wednesday. Data for October was revised slightly lower to show 570,000 jobs added instead of the initially reported 571,000.      
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast private payrolls would increase by 525,000 jobs.  
  
Versus the Japanese yen, dollar traded with a firm bias in Asia and gained to session highs at 113.62 ahead of European open. However, price then erased its gains and fell to 112.68 in tandem with US yields in New York afternoon.  
  
More news from Reuters, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday said that with price increases persisting much longer and at a higher rate than expected, the central bank needs to be ready to use its tools to address the range of "plausible outcomes" for inflation.    While inflation is expected by most forecasters to recede in the second half of next year, the Fed cannot afford to "act like we are sure" that will in fact be the outcome. Powell's comment came in response to a question during a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee.  
  
The single currency retreated to 1.1317 in Asian morning before rising briefly to session highs at 1.1360 in early European morning. However, the pair then dropped to an intra-day low at 1.1303 before staging a short-covering rebound to 1.1357.  
  
The British pound found renewed buying at 1.3289 in Asian morning and rebounded to 1.3332 at European open. Despite retreating in tandem with euro to an 1.3276 in European morning, the pair rallied to session highs of 1.1352 in New York morning but only to tumble to an intra-day low of 1.1262 on renewed usd's strength.  
  
On the data front, reported by Reuters manufacturing growth in the euro zone accelerated slightly last month but supply chain bottlenecks worsened, putting a cap on output and driving the cost of raw materials up at the fastest rate in over two decades, a survey showed.    IHS Markit's final manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) nevertheless nudged up to 58.4 in November from October's 58.3, shy of an initial 58.6 "flash" estimate but still comfortably above the 50 mark separating growth from contraction.  
  
Data to be released on Thursday:  

Australia trade balance, imports, exports, Japan consumer confidence, Swiss retail sales, Italy unemployment rate, EU producer prices, unemployment rate, U.S. initial jobless claims and continuing jobless claims.