Dollar treads water as Fed hike bets pared on benign US inflation

TOKYO, Aug 13 : The dollar's advance stalled on Thursday after an overall benign U.S. inflation reading overnight spurred traders to pare back bets for a near-term Federal Reserve interest rate hike.The greenback was little changed against the yen as of Asia's midday, but remained on course to gain about 1 per cent this week as markets bought back the currency pair following recent joint U.S.-Japan intervention that saw it plummet to a three-month low.The dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against the yen and five other major peers, was flat at 100 on Thursday, but on course for a 0.4 per cent weekly rise.U.S. consumer prices increased 0.1 per cent in July, in line with economists' expectations, leading money markets to reduce the odds of a September rate hike to 40 per cent, d