The dollar was holding firm against the euro and the yen in early European trade on Wednesday as investors keenly waited for U.S. trade data. Analysts say the greenback wouldn't weaken much even if the trade data showed the deficit had grown to a record high in March, as forecast by economists. The data, is expected to show the trade gap swelled to a record $61.5 billion. "Last month's price action suggested that the market had little appetite to add to short dollar positions on the basis of evidence of a worsening external balance," UBS said in a research note. The dollar hardly budged on a raft of comments from Fed officials during Tokyo trading hours that played down the apparent soft-patch in the U.S. economy, and supported the case for the central bank to keep raising interest rates. The market is monitoring every forex-related comment out of China for hints about when Beijing might relax the yuan peg, a move seen likely to push other Asian currencies higher. The deputy governor of China's central bank said in an interview published on Wednesday in Japan's Nihon Keizai newspaper that Beijing was technically ready for currency reform, but would not be pushed into it by the United States. China has said upward pressure on its rigid yuan currency was not so great and urged speculators betting on an imminent revaluation to be patient.