Forex Pros – The U.S. dollar was higher against all of its major counterparts on Monday, as concerns that the euro zone’s sovereign debt crisis could spread from Greece to Italy curtailed demand for higher-yielding assets.
During European morning trade, the greenback was sharply higher against the euro, with EUR/USD falling 0.81% to hit 1.4147.
The cost of insuring Italian sovereign debt against default rose sharply on Friday amid concerns over the country’s sovereign debt load, ahead of the release of bank stress test results later this week.
The greenback was also up against the pound, with GBP/USD shedding 0.57% to hit 1.5965.
In addition, the greenback posted modest gains against the yen and the Swiss franc, with USD/JPY easing up 0.13% to hit 80.74 and USD/CHF rising 0.15% to hit 0.8377.
The greenback was also stronger against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD gaining 0.30% to hit 0.9652, AUD/USD shedding 0.53% to hit 1.0696 and NZD/USD sliding 0.49% to hit 0.8335.
Earlier in the day, official data showed that Australian home-loan approvals rose slightly less-than-expected in May.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, surged 0.72%.
Later in the day, senior European Union policymakers were to hold an emergency meeting to discuss a second bailout package for Greece and assess the risk of the sovereign debt crisis spreading to Italy.
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