Dollar broadly lower vs. rivals amid U.S. debt jitters

Investing.com - The dollar was broadly lower against the other major currencies on Friday, as investors awaited any sign of progress in U.S. debt negotiations, as concerns over a potential sovereign default lingered.

During European morning trade, the dollar edged higher against the yen, with USD/JPY adding 0.14% to 98.30.

No deal emerged after a 90-minute meeting between President Barack Obama and Republican leaders on Thursday, but talks continued into the night in an effort to reopen the government and avoid a possible U.S. debt default.

Republicans offered to extend the government's borrowing authority for several weeks, temporarily putting off a default, while Obama was pushing to also reopen government operations that have been closed since October 1.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew reiterated Thursday that the U.S. will reach its debt ceiling on October 17 and warned that the political crisis is starting to hurt the economy. The comments came during testimony to the Senate finance committee.

Earlier Friday, Japan Minister of Economy Akira Amari urged U.S. politicians to show some responsibility, saying that if the current shutdown was allowed to continue, the U.S. could default on its debt.

The euro was higher against the dollar, with EUR/USD rising 0.30% to 1.3560.

The dollar was also lower against the pound and the Swiss franc, with GBP/USD up 0.08% to 1.5980, and with USD/CHF shedding 0.36% to hit 0.9085.

The pound remained near three-week lows after the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee voted on Thursday to leave its benchmark interest rate on hold at 0.5% and made no changes to its GBP375 billion quantitative easing program.

Elsewhere, the greenback was broadly lower against its Australian, New Zealand and Canadian counterparts, with AUD/USD edging up 0.17% to 0.9469, NZD/USD climbing 0.53% to trade at 0.8327 and USD/CAD easing 0.06% to 1.0392.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.17% to 80.43.

Later in the day, the University of Michigan was to release preliminary data on consumer sentiment.