Sterling held near a three-month high at $1.3534 after touching a peak in the previous session, supported by reduced expectations of further near-term U.S. Federal Reserve tightening and ahead of key UK labour and inflation data. The dollar remained close to multi-month lows against major peers as recent U.S. data, including unexpected job losses and mild inflation, led investors to trim the implied chance of a September Fed rate increase to 35% from 52.2% a week earlier, with markets no longer fully pricing in a hike by year-end. At the same time, the broader outlook stayed clouded by the more than five-month conflict involving Iran and the U.S., a prolonged effective shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz and oil prices above $90 a barrel, all of which have lifted inflation concerns and pushed long-dated global bond yields higher. That combination has limited some of the dollar's losses through safe-haven demand even as softer U.S. economic signals weighed on the currency.