1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar rises as stocks stabilize

The U.S. dollar climbed against other major currencies Wednesday as the global equity markets stabilized, lowering demand for safe-haven currency like Japanese yen.

U.S. and European stocks traded higher Wednesday following previous day's sharp declines. The Japanese yen dropped against the greenback for the first time in three sessions as investors' worries eased.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major currencies, was up 0.37 percent at 95.805 in late trading.

On the economic front, U.S. nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased at a 3.3-percent annual rate during the second quarter of 2015, beating market expectations of 2.8 percent, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.

Meanwhile, U.S. private sector employment rose by 190,000 jobs in August from July, missing market consensus of 210,000, according to the August ADP National Employment Report released Wednesday.

The ADP figure is watched closely as a pre-indicator for the nonfarm payrolls data due out Friday. Some analysts said that a soft ADP report could underpin the U.S. central bank's decision to postpone interest-rate hikes.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1240 dollars from 1.1309 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound dropped to 1.5305 dollars from 1.5316 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar inched down to 0.7034 U.S. dollar from 0.7041 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 120.23 Japanese yen, higher than 119.69 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar hiked to 0.9692 Swiss franc from 0.9607 Swiss franc and rose to 1.3281 Canadian dollars from 1.3181 Canadian dollars. Endit