Investing.com - The dollar was little changed against a basket of other major currencies on Monday, as trading volumes were expected to remain thin with U.S. markets closed for the Columbus Day holiday.
The US Dollar Index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, held steady at 85.73.
The dollar struggled to regain traction after the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve's September meeting last week prompted investors to push back the expected timing of a Fed rate hike.
On Friday, Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said weaker-than-expected global growth could prompt it to slow the pace of eventual interest rate hikes.
USD/JPY edged down 0.09% to trade at 107.54 as market sentiment was hit by global growth concerns after the International Monetary Fund cut its forecasts for global growth in 2014 and 2015 and warned that global growth may never reach its pre-crisis levels ever again.
Markets in Japan were to remain closed for a national holiday.
EUR/USD rose 0.38% to 1.2973. Sentiment on the euro remained vulnerable amid fears that Germany, the euro zone’s largest economy is being dragged into a recession after recent data indicated unexpected weakness in manufacturing and exports.
Data released on Thursday showed that German exports fell 5.8% in August, and this followed weak industrial output figures on Tuesday.
The pound was steady, with GBP/USD trading at 1.6082, while the Swiss franc edged higher with USD/CHF shedding 0.37% to 0.9539.
The commodity linked dollars were steady to higher, with AUD/USD climbing 0.51% to 0.8731 and NZD/USD gaining 0.43% to trade at 0.7857, while USD/CAD was little changed at 1.1204.
Markets in Canada were to remain closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Earlier Monday, official data showed that China's trade surplus narrowed to $31.0 billion last month from $49.8 billion in August, compared to estimates for a surplus of $41.0 billion.
Chinese exports climbed 15.3% from a year earlier in September, beating expectations for an 11.8% increase, while imports rose 7.0%, compared to forecasts for a 2.7% decline.