Investing.com – The euro pushed higher against the dollar on Thursday after the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting prompted investors to trim back expectations for mid-year rate hikes.
EUR/USD edged up 0.19% to 1.1418 from 1.1396 late Wednesday.
The minutes from the Fed’s January meeting showed that some officials thought that raising rates too soon could weigh on the U.S. economic recovery, and that a deterioration in the global economic outlook could also pose a threat to the recovery.
Concerns over the Greek debt crisis kept investors cautious and continued to weigh on the euro.
Athens was expected to submit a request for an extension of its existing loan agreement with the euro zone, which it differentiates from its bailout, later Thursday.
EUR/JPY eased up 0.10% to 135.51 from Wednesday’s lows of 135.07.
In Japan, data on Thursday showed that exports rose for the fifth consecutive month in January, which helped to cut the country’s trade deficit almost in half.
Japan's trade deficit fell to ¥1.18 trillion from ¥2.8 trillion in the same month last year, and was below market expectations of a ¥1.68 trillion shortfall.
USD/JPY was last at 118.71, almost unchanged for the day.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was steady at 94.12.