Forexpros – The U.S. dollar was broadly lower against its major rivals on Wednesday, while the euro strengthened broadly after a senior European Union official indicated more would be done to resolve the debt crisis in the euro zone.
During European morning trade, the greenback was down against the euro, with EUR/USD climbing 0.59% to hit 1.3665.
The euro found support after European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said earlier that more would be done to tackle the debt crisis in the euro zone and indicated that the Commission was examining ways to beef up the region’s bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility.
But concerns over a lack of consensus among euro zone members on how best to address the financial crisis lingered, with Germany remaining opposed to enlarging the capacity of the EUR440 billion EFSF.
The greenback was also lower against the pound, with GBP/USD rising 0.14% to hit 1.5660.
Sterling was weighed by ongoing speculation that the Bank of England may implement more monetary stimulus before the end of the year to boost the faltering U.K. economy.
In addition, the greenback was down against the yen and the Swiss franc with USD/JPY shedding 0.57% to hit 76.37 and USD/CHF sliding 0.26% to hit 0.8933.
Elsewhere, the greenback was higher against its Canadian counterpart but was lower against its Australian and New Zealand cousins, with USD/CAD gaining 0.26% to hit 1.0220, AUD/USD rising 0.33% to hit 0.9946 and NZD/USD easing up 0.14% to hit 0.7896.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.48% to hit 77.95.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish government data on durable goods orders, while Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was scheduled to speak.
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