Forex Pros – The U.S. dollar was down against all of its major counterparts on Tuesday, as risk appetite staged a modest recovery but concerns over the euro zone sovereign debt crisis continued to linger, keeping investors on edge.
During European morning trade, the greenback was lower against the euro, with EUR/USD rising 0.32% to hit 1.4091.
Earlier Tuesday, data showed that German business confidence held steady in May, confounding expectations for a modest decline.
The greenback was also lower against the pound, with GBP/USD easing up 0.13% to hit 1.6144.
Rating agency Moody’s said earlier that it may cut its rating on 14 British lenders, including Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland, because U.K. regulators appear less willing to bail out banks in the future.
Meanwhile, the greenback was down against the yen and the Swiss franc with USD/JPY slipping 0.11% to hit 81.90 and USD/CHF shedding 0.23% to hit 0.8816.
On Monday, St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said that the central bank is likely to keep interest rates on hold after the second round of quantitative easing expires late next month, to give more time to evaluate the strength of the U.S. economy.
The greenback was also down against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD sliding 0.15% to hit 0.9762, AUD/USD climbing 0.54% to hit 1.0562 and NZD/USD surging 0.89% to hit 0.7772.
Earlier Tuesday, New Zealand’s central bank said inflation expectations rose in the first quarter.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.23%.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish government data on new home sales.
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