By Gina Lee

Investing.com – The dollar was up on Wednesday morning in Asia, remaining close to highs for 2021 even amid volatile trading earlier in the session. Investors focused their attention on the U.S. Jobs Report later in the week.

By 10:46 ET (23:46 GMT), the index that measures the greenback’s performance against other currencies had risen 0.06% to 94.047.

It edged up by 0.13%, to 111.59

This pair dropped 0.38% to 0.7263 while the other was 0.6935.

With Chinese markets closing for the holiday, the pair held steady at 6.4467. The pair dropped 0.11%, to 1.3614.

The safe-haven currency has been a popular choice for investors. In fact, the U.S. Federal Reserve plans to start asset tapering by 2021 and increase interest rates in 2022. The U.S. jobs report, including non-farm payrolls, is due to be released on Friday and is seen as crucial to the Fed’s timeline for asset tapering.

According to Carol Kong, an analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia (OTC), a large misinterpretation of market expectations regarding the addition of around 428,000 jobs in September may dampen Friday’s larger figure.

She said that “we remain our belief that a solid increase in Friday’s payrolls would prompt the Fed into announcing a taper for November.”

In other central bank news, the hiked its interest rate to 0.50% from the previous month’s 0.25% as it handed down its policy decision earlier in the day. It will also announce its policy decisions on Friday.

Oil, although it was lower on Wednesday, still remained at three-year highs. Canadian dollar close to reaching its 200-day moving median and traded at a near one-month high.

Although the Australian dollar was also a risk-sensitive currency that saw some gains, concerns over slowing Chinese economic growth, which is a major market for Australian commodities exports, limited its gains.