FOREX-Dollar rebounds from 3-month low after U.S. data; FOMC minutes awaited

* Dollar recovers from 3-month lows
* Bitcoin shy of 2017 record

(New throughout, updates prices, market activity, comments to
U.S. market open; previous LONDON)
By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed
NEW YORK, Nov 25 (Reuters) - The dollar rebounded from a
three-month low against a basket of currencies on Wednesday as a
risk-on rally in global financial markets appeared to stall
after U.S. data showed a less-than-rosy economic picture.
The number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless
benefits increased further last week, suggesting that an
explosion in new COVID-19 infections and business restrictions
were boosting layoffs and undermining the labor market recovery.
The U.S. dollar index =USD was 0.05% lower at 92.086,
having fallen as low as 91.941 earlier in the session, its
weakest since Sept 1. Against the yen, the dollar was 0.07%
lower.
With the U.S. Thanksgiving break around the corner, it would
not be surprising to see risk assets correct and the U.S. dollar
rebound modestly, Shaun Osborne, chief currency strategist at
Scotiabank, said in a note, "as positions are squared up ahead
of what is effectively a long weekend".
"But that would likely do little to alter what is a fairly
deeply entrenched, bearish psyche surrounding the USD," Osborne
said.
The dollar has come under pressure in recent months from
expectations that U.S. rates will remain near historic lows for
years to come, and as news of various COVID-19 vaccines helped
boost investors' appetite for riskier currencies.
Still, the dollar is expected to continue to fall as
progress on a vaccine and the expected choice of former Federal
Reserve Chair Janet Yellen as the next U.S. Treasury secretary
relieved two big uncertainties for investors.
Later today, investors will be focused on the minutes from
the Federal Reserve's latest meeting.
"We don't expect much surprise and see limited room for the
minutes to tame the dollar decline. If anything, the risks are
skewed to a possible surprise coming from hints at an expansion
in quantitative easing in December," strategists at ING said in
a note to clients.
Sterling edged lower on Wednesday after British finance
minister Rishi Sunak announced a one-year spending plan to
parliament, along with new forecasts for the country's
coronavirus-hit economy. Bitcoin BTC=BTSP , the most popular cryptocurrency, climbed
to $19,271, just short of its record of $19,666 from December
2017.

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GRAPHIC: Dollar trades near 3-month lows https://tmsnrt.rs/360UbLX
GRAPHIC: World FX rates in 2020 https://tmsnrt.rs/2RBWI5E
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