Investing.com - The broadly stronger dollar rose to multi-month highs against the euro and the yen on Thursday after the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting were seen as being more hawkish.
EUR/USD touched lows of 1.3242, the weakest since September, down from 1.3257 late Wednesday.
The pair was likely to find support at about the 1.32 level and resistance at around 1.3285.
The dollar was boosted after Wednesday’s minutes of the Fed’s July meeting showed that some officials believe the strengthening recovery and ongoing improvement in the labor market supports a move towards tightening monetary policy.
Other officials want to see further evidence of economic recovery before moving towards raising rates.
Investors were looking ahead to a speech by Fed Chair Janet Yellen in Jackson Hole on Friday for further indications on the possible future direction of monetary policy.
Elsewhere, market sentiment was hit after data on Thursday showed that the preliminary reading of China’s HSBC manufacturing index fell to a three month low of 50.3 in August from 51.7 in July and well short of forecasts for 51.5.
The data sparked fresh fears over a slowdown in the world’s largest economy.
Another report showed that manufacturing activity in Japan accelerated in August, indicating that the economy is stabilizing after a sharp contraction in the second quarter, due to a sales tax hike.
USD/JPY touched four-and-a-half month highs of 103.96 and was last at 103.76.
Meanwhile, EUR/JPY was little changed close to two-week highs at 137.58.
The euro zone was to release what would be closely watched data on private sector activity later in the day.