Forexpros – The U.S. dollar was down against almost all of its major counterparts on Wednesday, as talks on raising the U.S. debt ceiling remained at an impasse, adding to concerns over a U.S. debt default or downgrade ahead of the August 2 deadline.
During European morning trade, the greenback was up against the euro, with EUR/USD sliding 0.21% to hit 1.4478.
The euro weakened as Spanish and Italian borrowing costs rose after disappointing debt auctions on Tuesday led to renewed concerns over the sovereign debt crisis in the single-currency bloc.
But the greenback was down against the pound, with GBP/USD easing up 0.12% to hit 1.6422.
Elsewhere, the greenback was trading close to a four-month trough against the yen and a record low against the Swiss franc, with USD/JPY shedding 0.28% to hit 77.66 and USD/CHF slipping 0.16% to hit 0.7999.
Earlier in the day, Bank of Japan board member Hidetoshi Kamezaki said the U.S. debt deadlock was having “a considerably impact” on foreign exchange markets and added that he was expecting the finance ministry to look at whether to intervene in currency markets.
In addition, the greenback was weaker against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD shedding 0.21% to hit 0.9422, AUD/USD rallying 0.98% to hit a post-float high of 1.1064 and NZD/USD climbing 0.59% to hit a record high of 0.8757.
The release of better-than-expected data on Australian consumer price inflation added to expectations for a near-term rate hike by the country’s central bank, while a separate report showing that business confidence in New Zealand rose to a 14-month high in July boosted the outlook for a rate hike by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, inched up 0.07%.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish official data on durable goods orders, while the U.S. Federal Reserve was to publish its Beige Book.
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