Greenback mixed as Spanish fears counteract Fed easing

Investing.com - The U.S. dollar traded mixed against its major counterparts  Monday, as the announcement of fresh easing measures by the Federal Reserve continued to weigh on the greenback, while renewed Spanish debt worries increased.

During U.S. morning trade, the dollar was higher against the euro, with EUR/USD falling 0.08% to 1.3118.

The euro came under pressure after Spain's government faced protests over the weekend against public spending cuts, even as Madrid told its European partners that its next steps to overhaul the economy would avoid further cuts in public spending. 

Also Monday, the ECB said that its current account fell to EUR9.7 billion in July, from EUR14.3 billion the previous month. Analysts had expected the bank's current account to decline to EUR10 billion in July.

A separate report showed that the euro zone's trade surplus narrowed unexpectedly to EUR7.9 billion in July from EUR9.3 billion the previous month.

The greenback was lower against the pound, with GBP/USD rising 0.27% to 1.6258.

Industry data showed earlier that house prices in the U.K. fell by 0.6% in September, following a 2.4% drop the previous month.

Elsewhere, the greenback was sharply higher against the yen, withUSD/JPY climbing 0.45% to hit 78.74, and almost unchanged against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF dipping 0.03% to trade at 0.9265.

In addition, the greenback was higher against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD edging 0.06% higher to 0.9721, AUD/USD dropping 0.46% to 1.0501 and NZD/USD falling 0.24% to hit 0.8270.

In New Zealand, the Westpac Banking Corporation said that its index of consumer sentiment rose to 102.5 in the thrid quarter, from a reading of 99.9 in the previous quarter. 

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.01%, to trade at 78.97.

The greenback remained under pressure after the Fed announced last week that it would buy USD40 billion of mortgage-backed securities every month and would keep buying them until the job market improves.

The bank also said it expects to keep short-term interest rates at record low levels through at least mid-2015, six months longer than previously anticipated.

Earlier Monday, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said that its index of manufacturing activity fell unexpectedly to minus 10.4 in September, from a reading of 5.8 the previous month.

Analysts had expected the index to decline to improve to minus 2 in September.