Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Dollar trims losses vs. rivals ahead of U.S. data

The U.S. dollar trimmed losses against its major counterparts on Wednesday, as risk aversion escalated ahead of the release of U.S. data on manufacturing production.

During European afternoon trade, the greenback was fractionally higher against the euro, with EUR/USD slipping 0.06% to hit 1.4331.

Earlier in the day, official data showed that euro zone industrial orders fell unexpectedly in June, posting the sharpest monthly fall since September 2010.

A separate report showed that the Ifo Institute's index of German business climate fell to a 14-month low this month.

The greenback was also up against the pound, with GBP/USD shedding 0.25% to hit 1.6452.

But the greenback was lower against both the yen and the Swiss franc, with USD/JPY slipping 0.12% to hit 76.55 and USD/CHF shedding 0.26% to hit 0.7901.

Earlier in the day, Japan unveiled a two-pronged approach aimed at curbing the appreciation of the yen, creating a new USD100 billion credit line to promote foreign investment and imposing new rules on companies’ foreign exchange holdings.

The initiative disappointed investors as it focused on strategies to cope with persistent yen strength and reduced the risk of further intervention to weaken the yen.

Elsewhere, the greenback was higher against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD easing up 0.09% to hit 0.9881, AUD/USD shedding 0.42% to hit 1.0481 and NZD/USD tumbling 0.87% to hit 0.8287.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, inched up 0.08% to hit 73.93.

Later Wednesday, the U.S. was to publish government data on durable goods orders.
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