Forex – Dollar gains some ground on U.S. rate hike hopes

Investing.com – The dollar edged higher against other major currencies on Wednesday, helped by growing hopes for a June rate hike in the U.S. and as investors turned their attention to a key U.S. employment report due at the end of the week.

slipped 0.11% to 1.1174.

The dollar weakened after data on Tuesday showed that the fell to 117.9 in April, compared to expectations for a rise to 119.8.

However, the U.S. Commerce Department said rose 0.4% last month, in line with economists’ forecasts. It was the biggest increase in four months.

The greenback has also been under pressure amid fears investigations into President Donald Trump’s ties with Russia could hamper his administration’s progress on promised stimulus measures.

In the euro zone, Eurostat earlier reported that rose by 1.4% in May, below expectations for an increase of 1.5% and following a final reading of a 1.9% advance in the prior month.

dropped 0.61% to trade at 1.2780 after that British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party could lose 20 of the 330 seats it holds in Parliament while the opposition Labour Party could gain nearly 30 seats

The news came after a string of opinion polls showed a narrowing lead for May’s Conservatives.

Data showed that fell to £4.3 billion in April from £4.7 billion the previous month, compared to expectations for decline to £4.5 billion.

held steady at 110.80, while was almost unchanged at 0.9745.

The Australian dollar was weaker, with down 0.19% at 0.7451, while was eased up 0.10% to 0.7103.

Data earlier showed that remained unchanged at 51.2 in May, confounding expectations for a downtick to 51.0.

China is Australia’s biggest export partner.

Meanwhile, held steady at 1.3449.

The , which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.12% at 97.35.