Forexpros – The U.S. dollar was mixed to lower against its major counterparts on Thursday, as investors remained jittery following better-than-expected euro zone bond auctions as U.S. data painted an uneven picture of the economic recovery.
During U.S morning trade, the dollar was lower against the euro, with EUR/USD easing up 0.12% to hit 1.3462.
Earlier Thursday, auctions of French and Spanish government debt met with solid investor demand, supporting the euro.
Spain’s Treasury auctioned the full targeted amount of EUR3.75 billion of government bonds, with yields staying below the critical 7% threshold. The average yield on Spain’s five-year bonds was 5.54%, compared with 4.84% in early November.
Meanwhile, France auctioned EUR4.5 billion of debt, including EUR1.57 billion of 10-year bonds at an average yield of 3.18%, down from 3.22% at a similar auction last month.
The auctions were seen as a major test of investor confidence, coming one day after six major central banks, including the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank cut the cost of emergency dollar funding for European banks in a coordinated action.
Elsewhere, ECB President Mario Draghi said the bank was ready to take stronger action to fight the region’s debt crisis if political leaders agree on much tighter budget controls in the euro zone at a summit meeting next week.
But the greenback was higher against the pound, with GBP/USD slipping 0.11% to hit 1.5681.
A report earlier showed that manufacturing activity in the U.K. fell less-than-expected in November, but remained in contraction territory for the second consecutive month.
Elsewhere, the greenback edged higher against the yen but fell against the Swiss franc, with USD/JPY rising 0.14% to hit 77.72, and USD/CHF shedding 0.29% to hit 0.9105.
In Switzerland, official data showed that the economy expanded in line with expectations in the third quarter, with gross domestic product growth of 0.2%, bringing the annualized rate of growth to 1.3%.
A separate report showed that Swiss manufacturing activity contracted more-than-expected in November, dropping for the third consecutive month.
Elsewhere, Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi said earlier that the government will compile a fourth spending package this fiscal year to help companies cope with the strong yen, but did not provide details on the funding.
Meanwhile, the greenback was broadly stronger against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD inching up 0.10% to hit 1.0187, AUD/USD tumbling 0.73% to hit 1.0208 and NZD/USD falling 0.58% to hit 0.7758.
Earlier in the day, government data showed that retail sales in Australia rose less-than-expected in September, while building approvals dropped unexpectedly in October.
Also Thursday, official data showed that Chinese manufacturing activity contracted in November for the first time in nearly three years as export orders fell sharply.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, dipped 0.09% to hit 78.39.
In the U.S., a report by the Institute of Supply Management showed that manufacturing activity rose at the fastest pace in five months in November.
The data came after the U.S. Department of Labor said new claims for unemployment benefits climbed to a seasonally adjusted 402,000 last week from an upwardly revised 396,000 the previous week, rising above 400,000 for the first time in just over a month.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to decline to 390,000 last week.
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