Forexpros – The U.S. dollar slipped lower against the Swiss franc on Thursday, as market sentiment slightly improved amid optimism over fresh talks on Greece and ahead of euro zone bond auctions later in the day.
USD/CHF hit 0.9362 during European morning trade, the pair’s lowest since January 4; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.9374, slipping 0.18%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.9266, the low of December 22 and resistance at 0.9448, the high of January 4.
France was to hold its first sale of medium and long-term debt after Standard & Poor’s downgraded its triple-A rating last week, while Spain was set to offer as much as EUR4.5 billion of bonds.
Elsewhere, talks between Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and the country’s creditors resumed on Wednesday, after breaking down last week amid disagreements over how much money investors will lose by swapping their bonds.
Greece needs to secure an agreement on restructuring its debt in order to access new bailout funds and avert a default when an EUR14.4 billion bond redemption comes due on March 20.
Market sentiment was also supported by reports that the International Monetary Fund is looking at ways to raise as much as USD500 billion in new lending capacity, to help countries deal with the effects of the debt crisis in the euro zone.
Meanwhile, the Swissie was fractionally higher against the euro with EUR/CHF edging down 0.03%, to hit 1.2081.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish official data on building reports and housing starts as well as a report on consumer price inflation. The country was also to release government data on unemployment claims and a separate report on manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia area.
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