* Dollar supported by relative economic strength
* Euro hampered by lockdown in France
* Yen at 1-year low vs dollar, M&A flow may have hurt
* U.S. ISM, payrolls data next focus
* Graphic: World FX rates https://tmsnrt.rs/2RBWI5E
By Hideyuki Sano
TOKYO, April 1 (Reuters) - The dollar held near a
multi-month high against other major currencies on Thursday as
investors bet fiscal stimulus and aggressive vaccinations will
help the United States grow faster than other economies.
The dollar's index against a basket of six major currencies
=USD stood at 93.239, close to a five-month high of 93.439
reached on Wednesday.
The gains came as the euro, the biggest component in the
index, suffers from concerns the euro zone's economic recovery
is being hampered by a third wave of COVID-19 infections.
President Emmanuel Macron ordered France into its third
national lockdown and said schools would close for three weeks
while the currency bloc also lagged the United States in
vaccination programmes. The euro changed hands at $1.1722 EUR= , after hitting a
near five-month low of $1.1704. Against the British pound, the
common currency hit a 13-month low of 0.85025 pound EURGBP=D4 .
The U.S. currency held firm against the yen after ending
March with its biggest monthly gains since November 2016.
"The dollar's gain will probably slow down but the bias is
still for the dollar to strengthen," said Masaru Ishibashi,
joint general manager of trading at Sumitomo Mitsui Bank.
The dollar traded at 110.74 yen JPY= , having risen to as
much as 110.97, its highest in a year.
"Yen-selling due to Japanese companies' foreign direct
investment is coming back after a slowdown due to the pandemic
last year," said Yujiro Goto, chief FX strategist at Nomura
Securities.
Japanese conglomerate Hitachi 6501.T on Wednesday
announced a $9.6 billion acquisition of U.S. software company
GlobalLogic Inc. Some traders speculated flows related to the deal could be
behind some of the dollar's recent rises.
U.S. President Joe Biden announced his long awaited $2
trillion-plus job plan, including $621 billion to rebuild
infrastructure. But the effort sets the stage for the next partisan clash in
the Congress where members are divided on the total size and
inclusion of programmes traditionally seen as social services.
That leaves big uncertainties on how the plan will end up,
helping to keep immediate market reactions to minimum.
"This new package would certainly be a big positive for the
U.S. economy if passed by Congress," said Elliot Clarke, senior
economist at Westpac in Sydney.
U.S. DATA EYED
As the U.S. dollar maintained its strength, the Australian
dollar dropped 0.65% to $0.7540 AUD=D4 , a low last seen in
late December.
The offshore Chinese yuan eased 0.3% to 6.582 to the dollar
CNH= , as data showed China's factory activity in March
expanded at the slowest pace in almost a year. While currency trading is expected to slow towards the
Easter holidays in many parts of the world, the dollar could
gain if key U.S. economic indicators surprise on the upside.
A survey by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) on
Thursday is expected to show a further improvement in the
manufacturing activity.
Economists expect Friday's job data to show an increase of
about 650,000 payrolls in March while the latest chatter in the
market is it could swing higher, and even top one million.
The ADP National Employment Report showed on Wednesday U.S.
private payrolls increased by 517,000 jobs last month, slightly
lower than market forecasts. In the crypto asset market, bitcoin maintained its firmness
over the past several days to trade at $59,160 BTC=BTSP .
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