Investing.com - The dollar was trading near 11-month highs against the other major currencies on Wednesday fears over mounting tensions in Ukraine and fresh concerns over the euro zone economy underpinned safe haven demand.
Markets were jittery as a buildup of Russian armed forces along its border with Ukraine fuelled fresh concerns over geopolitical tensions in the region.
EUR/USD was down 0.15% to 1.3356, after falling to a nine month trough of 1.3333 earlier in the session.
The drop in the euro came after data showed that Italy unexpectedly slid back into a recession in the second quarter and another report showing that German factory orders fell unexpectedly in June.
The weak data underlined concerns that the recovery in the euro area is losing momentum.
Investors were looking ahead to the outcome of Thursday’s European Central Bank meeting as concerns over the divergence in monetary policy between it and other major central banks weighed.
The dollar was lower against the yen, with USD/JPY shedding 0.32% to trade at 102.36, while USD/CHF was little changed at 0.9094.
GBP/USD was down 0.30% to 1.6833 after a report earlier showed that industrial and manufacturing output in the U.K. expanded at a slower than expected rate in June.
The Canadian dollar moved higher, with USD/CAD losing 0.26% to trade at 1.0930.
The loonie was boosted after official data showed that Canada’s trade surplus unexpectedly widened to C$1.86 billion in June as exports rose to a record high.
At the same time, official data showed that the U.S. trade deficit narrowed unexpectedly to a five month low of $41.54 billion in June from $44.66 billion in May.
Elsewhere, NZD/USD was down 0.18% to 0.8451 and AUD/USD eased up 0.18% to 0.9319.
The US Dollar Index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.08% to 81.66 after touching highs of 81.77 earlier, the most since September.