Forexpros – The U.S. dollar was down against all of its major counterparts on Wednesday, as investors awaited the results of a refinancing operation by the European Central Bank, aimed at averting a liquidity crunch in the euro zone.
During European morning trade, the dollar was lower against the euro, with EUR/USD rising 0.47% to hit 1.3143.
The ECB was to make its first offering of three-year loans, introduced after the bank’s policy meeting earlier this month, to ensure that banks have ample funding in order to avert a liquidity shortage in the euro zone.
The greenback was also down against the pound, with GBP/USD adding 0.46% to hit 1.5735.
The Bank of England’s December meeting minutes showed that policymakers saw little change in the balance of risks to growth and said inflation may decline more slowly than expected.
Earlier Wednesday, a report by researchers GfK showed that consumer confidence in the U.K. weakened in December, hitting the lowest level since February 2009.
The greenback was lower against the yen and the Swiss franc, with USD/JPY slipping 0.11% to hit 77.79 and USD/CHF shedding 0.34% to hit 0.9285.
The Bank of Japan kept its interest rate unchanged close to zero earlier, but downgraded its economic outlook from last month on mounting evidence of the effects of the euro zone’s debt crisis on global growth and Japan’s recovery prospects.
In addition, the greenback was weaker against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand cousins, with USD/CAD falling 0.69% to hit 1.0225, AUD/USD rallying 1.0% to hit 1.0180 and NZD/USD advancing 1.02% to hit 0.7758.
Earlier Wednesday, official data showed that New Zealand posted a current account deficit of NZD4.60 billion in the fourth quarter, surpassing expectations for a deficit of NZD3.77 billion.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.46% to hit 79.86.
Later Wednesday, the U.S. was to produce industry data on existing home sales.
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