The dollar rose against most major currencies Wednesday after minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting indicated that another rate hike is possible in June.
In afternoon New York trading, the euro bought $1.2814, down from $1.2865 late Tuesday in New York. The British pound dropped to $1.8689 from $1.8829.
The dollar strengthened against the Japanese currency, rising to 112.59 yen from 112.17 yen.
Released Wednesday afternoon, the Fed minutes showed that policy-makers considered several options at the May 10 policy meeting, including leaving rates unchanged to boosting them by a half percentage point. Fed officials settled on another quarter point increase to 5 percent.
Chairman Ben Bernanke and his Fed colleagues also opted to leave the door open to additional rate increases "in view of the risk that the outlook for inflation could worsen," according to the minutes.
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The central bank has raised rates 16 consecutive times since June 2004, which has bolstered the dollar. Higher rates make a currency more attractive because they increase the rate of return on investments denominated in it.
Also on Wednesday, the German government said that the number of jobless in Germany fell by 255,000 to 4.54 million in May, bringing down the unemployment rate to 10.8 percent from 11.5 percent in April.
In neighboring France, the jobless rate fell to 9.3 percent in April from 9.5 percent the previous month, the country's labor ministry said.
In other trading, the dollar bought 1.2182 Swiss francs, up from 1.2116 late Tuesday, and 1.1011 Canadian dollars, up from 1.0999.
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