Forexpros – The U.S. dollar was broadly higher against its major counterparts on Monday, as investor confidence weakened after Sunday’s highly anticipated elections in Greece and France reignited concerns over the handling of the euro zone’s financial woes.
During European morning trade, the dollar was higher against the euro, with EUR/USD dropping 0.59% to hit 1.3004.
In Greece, neither of the two pro-bailout parties secured enough votes to form a majority in parliament, as voters favored smaller parties who campaigned against the harsh government austerity program, throwing the future of the country’s international bailout agreement into doubt.
Meanwhile, in France President Nicolas Sarkozy was defeated by socialist candidate Fran?ois Hollande, who has been critical of the country’s austerity program.
The euro also came under pressure after a report by Sentix showed that its index of investor confidence for the single currency bloc tumbled to minus 24.5 in May, from a reading of minus 14.7 the previous month.
Analysts had expected the index to tick down to minus 15.3 in May.
The greenback was steady against the pound, with GBP/USD edging down 0.05% to hit 1.6139.
Markets in the U.K. were to remain closed due to a bank holiday.
Elsewhere, the greenback was steady against the yen and higher against the Swiss franc, with USD/JPY easing 0.10% to hit 79.77 and USD/CHF rising 0.60% to hit 0.9236.
In Switzerland, official data showed that consumer price inflation rose less-than-expected in April, adding 0.1% after a 0.6% rise the previous month. Analysts had expected consumer price inflation to rise 0.2% in April.
Meanwhile, in the minutes of the Bank of Japan’s April 9 and 10 policy meeting, policymakers said that Japan’s economic activity was showing signs of improvement but that there was still a high degree of uncertainty regarding the global.
At its latest policy meeting, the BoJ left its benchmark interest rate unchanged, close to zero.
The greenback was higher against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD adding 0.15% to hit 0.9972, AUD/USD falling 0.16% to hit 1.0164 and NZD/USD declining 0.23% to hit 0.7937.
The Australian dollar found support after official data showed that domestic retail sales rose more-than-expected in March, adding 0.9% after a 0.3% rise the previous month. Analysts had expected retail sales to rise 0.3% in March.
The data came after a separate report showed that building approvals in Australia jumped 7.4% in March, above expectations for a 3.2% rise and following an 8.8% decline the previous month.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.41%, at 79.92.
Later in the day, Germany was to publish official data on factory orders.
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