Investing.com - The U.S. dollar moved lower against its major counterparts in Asian trade Friday, following the rise on Wall Street from positive U.S. labor figures and a settling European political picture.
In mid-day Asian trade, the greenback was lower against the euro, with EUR/USD rising 0.05% to hit 1.3616.
Surging Italian government bond yields that startled the market Wednesday abated, with yields on an auction of Italian government bills falling to 6.9% on Thursday from 7%, the rate at which Greece initiated requests for debt aid.
Market analysts forecast that the record high yields on Italian bonds were unsustainable and that if the country were to quickly name a successor to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, it would further ease market anxieties over an Italian financial collapse.
Former European Commissioner and economist Mario Monti, emerged as the front-runner to replace Berlusconi who reportedly told Italian news sources that a Monti-led government appeared inevitable.
In Athens Thursday, Greece’s new coalition government agreed to name former European Central Bank Vice President Lucas Papademos as the country’s new prime minister.
Later Thursday, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the number of Americans filling for unemployment assistance fell to a seven-month low, down 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 390,000 for the week ending November 4.
Market expectation were for jobless claims to reach 400,000 for the period.
Wall Street dealers snapped up oversold U.S. issues from the previous session following news from Europe, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average adding 0.94%, the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.13%, and the S&P 500 advanced 0.86%.
Meanwhile, the greenback was lower against the British pound, with GBP/USD gaining 0.02% to hit 1.5934.
The dollar was lower against both the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc with USD/JPY down 0.11% to hit 77.56, and USD/CHF lower by 0.02% to hit 0.9060.
Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi told reporters in Tokyo Friday that the ministry was monitoring the foreign exchange market closely for unusual swings in Japan’s currency.
“I’m watching markets with great interest for speculative trading and excessive movements, “ Azumi said. “I think unstable factors for markets, including stocks, are increasing since last week because of Europe, especially after problems emerged in Italy.”
The greenback was mixed against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts with USD/CAD up 0.21% to hit 1.0192, AUD/USD higher by 0.02% to hit 1.0154, and NZD/USD rising 0.09% to hit 0.7780.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.07% at 77.78.
The University of Michigan was due to release its latest consumer sentiment index later Friday.