Investing.com - The U.S. dollar traded lower against a slew of major currencies on Monday, ahead of President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress on Tuesday, as investors await details on Trump’s economic agenda.
The dollar made a timid start to the trading week, despite a better-than-expected durable goods order print for January, as President’s Trump’s speech to congress on Tuesday remained in focus.
The Commerce Department said on Monday that orders for durable goods rose 1.8 percent in January after two months of declines. The strength last month came from a big surge in demand for commercial aircraft and military aircraft.
Elsewhere, Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan speech in Oklahoma on Monday helped ease losses in the greenback, after he reiterated that the rate hike should be sooner rather than later and said that even if the Fed raised interest rates “a few times” in 2017 the economy would likely grow more than 2% this year.
The U.S. dollar index which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, slipped 0.27% to 100.85.
Meanwhile, sterling slumped to a 12-day low of $1.2382, following reports that Scotland was preparing to call another independence referendum when formal Brexit negotiations are triggered in March.
GBP/USD pared losses during U.S. trading hours to trade at $1.2461.
The euro made strong gains, fresh off the heels of polls showing that far-right anti-EU leader Marine Le Pen was losing traction in France's presidential race.
EUR/USD surged more than 0.5% to trade at $1.602 while EUR/GBP traded 0.4% higher at £0.8521.
USD/CAD traded higher at $1.3103 while USD/JPY traded flat at 112.22.