TOKYO, Sept 12 Reuters The dollar traded near a fourweek high versus the euro on Thursday after signs of some stickiness in U.S. inflation reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve would avoid a supersized interest rate cut next week.

Meanwhile, a quarterpoint rate reduction from the European Central Bank ECB is widely expected later in the day, with investors anxious for hints on how soon the monetary authority will cut again.

The dollar gained against the yen, following a turbulent session the previous day that saw the U.S. currency slide as much as 1.24 to the lowest this year before recovering all its losses after the consumer price data.

Early on Wednesday, Bank of Japan board member Junko Nakagawa reinforced the central bank39;s tightening bias by saying low real rates leave room for further rate hikes.

On Thursday, fellow BOJ board member Naoki Tamura, known as a policy hawk, said the market39;s expected pace of tightening could be too slow comments that helped mitigate yen losses.

The speeches are a sign of an important shift in communication style at the bank, according to Shoki Omori, chief Japan desk strategist at Mizuho Securities.

The BOJ is trying to get markets to price in a hike using forward guidance instead of using media outlets, which is a good change, he said.

But markets aren39;t used to it, so that39;s one reason why yen volatility has risen in recent weeks.

The dollar rose 0.31 to 142.805 yen as of 0505 GMT, after earlier gaining…