Investing.com - The dollar moved higher against the euro on Wednesday as prospects for further monetary easing by the European Central Bank dampened demand for the single currency, while the yen was little changed against the dollar following Tuesday’s mixed U.S. data.
EUR/USD hit session lows of 1.3790, and was last down 0.19% to 1.3798, holding above Tuesday’s lows of 1.3748.
The single currency fell sharply against the dollar on Tuesday after ECB governing council member Jens Weidmann said a negative deposit rate could be an appropriate way to address the impact of strong gains in the euro. He also said it was not out of the question for the ECB to buy loans or other assets from banks to fight deflation.
The euro later bounced off lows after Weidmann said the current euro exchange rate does not call for policy action.
EUR/JPY slipped 0.14% to 141.18, not far from Tuesday’s lows of 140.68.
Elsewhere, USD/JPY edged up 0.05% to 102.31 in rangebound trade.
Data on Tuesday showed that U.S. consumer confidence rose to a six-year high in March. However, a separate report said that new home sales fell by the most in five months in February, pointing to continued weakness in the housing sector.
The dollar pushed higher against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF up 0.39% to 0.8859.
The dollar was steady close to five-week lows against the pound, with GBP/USD trading at 1.6526.
The Australian dollar advanced to four-month highs, with AUD/USD up 0.71% to 0.9228 after weak Chinese manufacturing data earlier in the week fuelled hopes that the government may implement stimulus measures to bolster growth.
NZD/USD rose 0.44% to 0.8611, while USD/CAD was down 0.34% to 1.1125.
The US Dollar Index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.27% to 80.29.