Investing.com - The dollar pulled back from 11-year highs hit against the euro earlier Monday after anti-austerity Syriza party swept to victory in elections in Greece, sparking fears about Greece's future in the euro zone.
EUR/USD was up 0.28% to 1.1234, recovering from overnight lows of 1.1099, the weakest since September 2003.
The euro stabilized as markets shrugged off concerns over Syriza’s pledge to renegotiate the terms of Greece's €240 billion international bailout and reverse many of the austerity measures imposed by the European Union and International Monetary Fund.
Market sentiment continued to be underpinned after the European Central Bank unveiled a €1.2 trillion asset purchase program last week, aimed at combatting slowing growth and inflation in the euro area.
The euro also gained ground against the yen and the Swiss franc, with EUR/JPY last up 0.55% to 132.71 and EUR/CHF advancing 1.88% to 1.0014.
In other trade, the dollar gained against the yen, with USD/JPY rising 0.32% to 118.16.
Earlier Monday, official figures showed that Japanese exports rose 12.9% in December from a year earlier, the largest gain in a year, fuelling optimism over the economic recovery.
At the same time, the minutes of the Bank of Japan’s December meeting indicated that policymakers are not in a hurry to step up stimulus measures, despite the threat to the inflation outlook from the recent sharp drop in oil prices.
Elsewhere, USD/CHF jumped 1.44% to trade at 0.8922, while GBP/USD was up 0.13% to 1.5011.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars were little changed, with AUD/USD at 0.7917 and NZD/USD at 0.7446. The Canadian dollar was at six year lows, with USD/CAD up 0.32% to 1.2458.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was steady at 95.35, not far from Friday’s more than 11-year highs of 95.77.