2018.10.1803:49:00UTC+00U.S. Dollar Firms After Fed Minutes

The U.S. dollar advanced against its major counterparts in the Asian session on Thursday, after the Federal Reserve's minutes from the latest meeting showed that the central bank is on track for raising rates gradually, despite Trump calling it the "biggest threat" to his presidency.

The assessment that the "gradual approach" remains appropriate comes as the meeting participants generally judged that the economy was evolving about as anticipated.

The Fed argued the "gradual approach" would balance the risk of raising rates too quickly, causing a slowdown in the economy, and raising rates too slowly, leading to inflation above the central bank's 2 percent objective.

At the meeting, the policy makers unanimously agreed to raise rates by another quarter percentage point, to a range of 2 percent to 2.5 percent.

Expectations for a December rate hike steepened following the release of minutes, as the CME Group's Fed Watch tool currently puts the probability of a December hike at 81.4 percent, up from 78.5 percent on Tuesday.

Investors await U.S. reports on weekly jobless claims, Philadelphia-area manufacturing activity and leading economic indicators later in the session for more direction.

The greenback spiked up to a 9-day high of 1.3076 versus the pound, from a low of 1.3108 hit at 6:55 pm ET. The next possible resistance for the greenback is seen around the 1.29 area.

After falling to 0.9944 against the franc at 5:15 pm ET, the greenback reversed direction and strengthened to near a 2-month high of 0.9959. The greenback is poised to find resistance around the 1.02 level. The greenback advanced to an 8-day high of 1.1483 against the euro and a weekly high of 1.3056 against the loonie, coming off from its early lows of 1.1505 and 1.3015, respectively. The greenback is seen finding resistance around 1.13 against the euro and 1.32 against the loonie.

The greenback held steady against the kiwi and the aussie, after having advanced to 3-day highs of 0.6534 and 0.7105, respectively in early deals. The greenback had ended Wednesday's trading at 0.6550 against the kiwi and 0.7109 against the aussie.

The greenback appreciated to an 8-day high of 112.73 against the yen and held steady thereafter. At yesterday's close, the pair was worth 112.64.

Data from the Ministry of Finance showed that Japan recorded a merchandise trade surplus of 139.6 billion yen in September.

That exceeded expectations for a deficit of 45.1 billion yen following the 444.6 billion yen shortfall in August.

Looking ahead, U.K. retail sales data for September is due in the European session.

In the New York session, U.S. weekly jobless claims for the week ended October 6 and leading index for September are scheduled for release.

At 12:15 pm ET, Federal Reserve Governor Randal Quarles speaks about the economic outlook at the Economic Club of New York luncheon.