Dollar bounces back from weak private employment report Dollar upturn comes as yields rise on Fed official's comments Kiwi climbs again Ether rises ahead of change in the blockchain network By David Henry NEW YORK, Aug 4 : The dollar recovered quickly from Wednesday's fall when comments from top U.S. Federal Reserve officials appeared to suggest that the central bank may reduce support for the improving economy more quickly than widely thought. The official's weak comments on the U.S. economy triggered a rebound in U.S. Treasury yields and turned currency markets attention away from the release, just two hours earlier, of an unexpectedly weak private employment report. The Dollar swung from being up 0.3% for the day to down 0.3% on the opposing clues on whether the U.S. will see strong economic growth and higher interest rates or a serious drag because of the coronavirus pandemic. The ADP National Employment Report was seen as possibly foreshadowing softness in jobs data due on Friday from the American government. The currency markets have been anticipating Friday's non-farm payrolls report to be the next big catalyst for exchange rates, followed by comments expected in a symposium of central bankers at the end of this month in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. At Midday in New York, the dollar index was high against major currencies up 0.3% to 92.268. The Japanese yen, often seen as a competing safe haven, was a big beneficiary of the dollar's initial fall on the ADP report and gained to 108.77 per dollar, but couldn't hold the break below 109. The Japanese dollar was last trading at 109.54 yen, up 0.5%. The C.S. Currency Index has also clashed with the Euro and British pound. The euro was last trading at $1.1836, down 0.2% for the whole day. Sterling declined 0.1% to $1.3903. The initial downdraft came when the ADP national employment report showed U.S. private payrolls increased about half as much as economists had expected, likely constrained by shortages of workers and raw materials. It was a pretty big disappointment, said Mazen Issa, senior strategist in TD Securities. The ADP report has a substantial record of forecasting the government report, Issa said, but added that the miss is mixed enough that the markets may be a little bit more nervous going into Thursday's report. The Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell and other policy makers recently highlighted that upcoming employment reports will be critical to the Board's decisions about when and how to reduce support for the economy. The dollar has lost value in recent weeks as declining yields have made strategists question whether the U.S. economy will grow as much as they had expected in light of the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID - 19. The New Zealand dollar made strong gains for the second consecutive day, after a drop in unemployment in the country raised expectations that rate hikes could begin within weeks. The U.S. dollar was last up 0.4% against the kiwi, at $0.7044. The central bank of the country has said on Tuesday that it would soon begin consulting on ways to tighten mortgage lending standards as it tries to control an inflated housing market. Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency, rose 8% to $2,706. 17 ahead of an upcoming change in the Ethereum blockchain network that will take some tokens out of circulation. Bitcoin rose 3% to $39,421 and rose to 365,401.