Forexpros – The U.S. dollar trimmed losses against its major counterparts on Thursday, as the euro came under pressure following an Italian debt auction, while markets awaited a flurry of key U.S. economic data.
During European afternoon trade, the greenback was down against the euro, with EUR/USD edging 0.2% higher to hit 1.4191.
Earlier in the day, Italy auctioned EUR1.25 billion of five-year bonds at an average yield of 4.93%, the highest since June 2008 and up significantly from 3.9% in June.
The greenback was also weaker against the pound, with GBP/USD easing up 0.03% to hit 1.6109.
Elsewhere, the greenback was down against the Swiss franc but slightly higher against the yen, with USD/CHF shedding 0.22% to hit 0.8161 and USD/JPY edging up 0.03% to hit 79.02.
The dollar rebounded from a four-month low against the yen earlier after Japan’s finance minister said movements in currency markets have been one sided and did not reflect economic fundamentals, fanning speculation that Japan would intervene to stem the currency’s gains.
Meanwhile, the greenback edged higher against its Canadian and Australian counterparts, with USD/CAD easing up 0.03% to hit 0.9585 and AUD/USD dipping 0.03% to hit 1.0751.
But the greenback was down against the New Zealand dollar, with NZD/USD jumping 0.78% to hit 0.8440, after earlier rising to a 26-year high of 0.8455.
Earlier in the day, official data showed that New Zealand’s gross domestic product expanded by 0.8% in the first quarter of 2011, beating expectations for a 0.3% gain and faster than growth of 0.2% in the preceding quarter.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.26% to trade at 75.35.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release a string of economic data, including a report on retail sales, producer price inflation, as well as weekly government data on initial jobless claims.
Also Thursday, Fed Chair Ben Bernanke was to deliver the second part of his testimony on monetary policy in Washington.
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