Forexpros – The U.S. dollar was broadly lower against its major rivals on Wednesday, as risk appetite recovered on the back of hopes for a breakthrough by leaders on dealing with the debt crisis in the euro zone at this weekend’s European Union summit.
During European late morning trade, the greenback was down against the euro, with EUR/USD climbing 0.62% to hit 1.3838.
The euro was lifted by hopes that Sunday’s EU summit could result in some progress in dealing with the debt crisis, after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the summit will mark an important step in resolving the region’s debt woes.
But investors remained cautious after ratings agency Moody’s downgraded Spain’s sovereign debt rating and said it was maintaining a negative outlook on Spain’s rating, one day after it placed France’s triple-A credit rating on review.
The greenback was also down against the pound, with GBP/USD advancing 0.54% to hit 1.5797.
Earlier in the day, the minutes of the Bank of England’s October meeting showed that policymakers voted unanimously to restart quantitative easing before injecting GBP75 billion into the ailing U.K. economy.
Policymakers considered injecting as much as GBP100 billion into the U.K. economy the minutes said.
In addition, the greenback was lower against the yen and the Swiss franc with USD/JPY dipping 0.05% to hit 76.77 and USD/CHF slipping 0.06% to hit 0.8979.
The greenback was weaker against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand cousins, with USD/CAD shedding 0.43% to hit 1.0095, AUD/USD rising 0.67% to hit 1.0332 and NZD/USD adding 0.48% to hit 0.7995.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.40% to hit 76.95.
Later Wednesday, the U.S. was to publish government data on building permits, housing starts and consumer price inflation.
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