1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar rallies on Yellen's comments

The U.S. dollar soared against other major currencies on Wednesday as Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the country's sound economy could justify an interest-rate hike by year-end.

Yellen told Congress on Wednesday that "December would be a live possibility" for a rate increase at the Fed's next monetary policy meeting as the U.S. economy is "performing well." Yellen's words spurred market expectation for a rate-liftoff this year.

On the economic front, the U.S. international trade deficit in goods and services came in at 40.8 billion U.S. dollars in September, down 7.2 billion dollars from revised 48 billion dollars in August, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

U.S. private sector employment increased by 182,000 jobs from September to October, according to the ADP National Employment Report released Wednesday.

Investors were awaiting the closely-watched U.S. nonfarm payroll report due out Friday to get a more comprehensive view of the recovery of the country's labor market.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 0.82 percent at 97.950 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.0856 dollars from 1.0963 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound declined to 1.5376 dollars from 1.5434 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar dropped to 0.7150 dollar from 0.7199 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 121.57 Japanese yen, higher than 121.06 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar hiked to 0.9942 Swiss franc from 0.9906 Swiss franc, and it went up to 1.3163 Canadian dollars from 1.3043 Canadian dollars. Endit