Forexpros – The U.S. dollar surged higher against its major counterparts on Wednesday as Italian and Spanish stress increased the euro zones economic fears.
During late session U.S. trade, the greenback was up against the euro, with EUR/USD dropping 0.39% to hit 1.2986.
The single currency continued to falter on higher Italian yields and heavy Spanish bank borrowing from the European Central Bank.
The greenback was also up against the pound, with GBP/USD falling 0.23% to hit 1.5476.
Spanish lenders borrowed an average of 98 billion euros from the ECB in November, the largest absolute increase since June, 2010, reflecting trouble obtaining other financing sources.
An Italian bond auction pushed yields higher than expected, adding to the bearish gloom.
In addition, the cost for euro zone banks to borrow dollars trended higher for the fifth straight day, according to economic indicators.
Meanwhile, the greenback was higher against the yen and the Swiss franc with USD/JPY up by 0.96% to hit 78.07 and USD/CHF rising 0.78% to hit 0.9529.
The greenback was up against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts with USD/CAD climbing 0.58% to hit 1.0398, AUD/USD falling 1.12% to hit 0.9903 and NZD/USD dropping 0.85% to 0.7504.
Investors are awaiting European Central Bank head Mario Draghi to speak on Thursday, the ECB’s monthly bulletin, as well as Initial Jobless Claims from the U.S. .
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