Forexpros – The U.S. dollar traded sharply lower against its major counterparts on weak U.S. economic data and euro positive comments from European Central Bank’s President Mario Draghi.
During late session U.S. trade, the greenback traded sharply lower against the euro, with EUR/USD gaining 0.94% to hit 1.2827.
In euro bullish news, Spain auctioned euro9.98 billion of bonds, twice the targeted amount and Italy met its target sending borrowing costs plunging.
Interest rates were unchanged in the euro zone and the U.K, with the European Central Bank holding steady at 1% and the Bank of England maintaining a 0.5% rate meeting analyst’s estimates.
The dollar was down slightly against the pound with GBP/USD easing higher by 0.3% to 1.5534 .
Elsewhere, the greenback was lower against the yen and Swiss franc with USD/JPY off by 0.14% to 76.74 and USD/CHF slipping 0.97% to hit 0.9447.
In addition the greenback was mixed against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand cousins with USD/CAD dropping 0.04% to hit 1.0191, AUD/USD gaining 0.14% to hit 1.0324 and NZD/USD giving back 0.48% to 0.7930. .
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, gave back 0.52% to hit 81.06.
In the U.S., a report indicated that more Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week than forecasted added to speculation that the U.S. recovery may be slowing.
U.S. retail sales in December also failed to meet forecasts increasing the dollar bearish sentiment in the world’s largest economy
Investors are awaiting U.S. import prices and the University of Michigan’s inflation expectation numbers.
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