Dollar treads water

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TOKYO: The dollar stuck to narrow ranges against its major rivals in Asian trade on Thursday, ahead of this week´s nonfarm payrolls report that could reinforce expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will hike interest rates by December.

Beleaguered sterling slumped 0.3 percent to $1.2715 after falling as low as $1.2686 on Wednesday, its weakest in more than three decades on fears of the impact of Britain´s impending exit from the European Union.

Underpinning the dollar, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said he would be "fine" with raising U.S. interest rates by year-end if U.S. economic data remained firm.

On the economic data front on Wednesday, upbeat U.S. services sector activity offset a weaker-than-expected print on private-sector job growth ahead of Friday´s jobs report.

The monthly employment figures are expected to show 175,000 jobs were added in September, according to the median estimate of 100 economists polled by Reuters.

Market participants will also look for any upward revision to August´s weaker-than-expected gain of 151,000 jobs.  The dollar took a breather from its overnight run-up against its Japanese counterpart.