The dollar began the last quarter of 2021 near its highest levels of the year and headed for its best week since June, as currency markets braced for U.S. interest rates to rise before those of major peers. The euro slipped 0.1% early on Friday to $1.1572 and has fallen 1.3% this week, tumbling through major support around $1.16 to touch its lowest levels since July 2020. The yen is down 0.6% for the week and twice as much in a fortnight as higher U.S. Treasury yields have drawn flows out of the Japanese yen into dollars. U.S. Treasury yields have surged on growing market expectations of U.S. tapering by year-end and rate hikes in 2022. A Federal Reserve meeting last week reinforced expectations for asset purchase tapering beginning this year and rate hikes starting in 2022 or early in 2023. Commodity currencies made a bounce on the dollar on Thursday following a Bloomberg report which said China had ordered energy companies to secure supplies for the winter at all costs, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. Beijing is scrambling to deliver more coal to utilities to restore supply amid a power crunch that has unsettled markets due to the likely hit to economic growth. Markets in Hong Kong and China are closed on Friday. Later in the day, traders are awaiting U.S. personal spending and core consumption deflator data and nervously watching for any progress on the debate over raising the U.S. debt ceiling.