Investing.com - The U.S. dollar traded mixed against its rivals Monday, as investors await the outcome of a highly anticipated meeting of European Union finance ministers, as euro zone debt concerns continued to weigh.
The greenback traded higher against the euro with EUR/USD falling 0.58%
The euro remained under pressure even as Klaus Regling, the head of the euro zone's permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, said that the fund is now fully operational, with a capacity of EUR200 billion. Fitch ratings agency assigned an AAA credit rating to the ESM.
Separately, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that Spain does not need euro zone financial help because its problems stem from the banking sector and the country is already getting a loan to recapitalise its financial sector.
Markets remained jittery, as European Union finance ministers were scheduled to meet later Monday, and as German Chancelor Angela Merkel was to make her first trip to Greece since July 2007 on Tuesday.
Merkel's visit coincides with deliberations among Greece's troika of international creditors - the ECB, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund - on whether the country will receive its next installment of aid.
Also Monday, official data showed that the Sentix index of investor confidence in the euro zone for October improved less-than-expected, ticking up to minus 22 from a reading of minus 23.2 the previous month.
The greenback was higher against the pound, with GBP/USD declining 0.64% to 1.6029.
Elsewhere, the greenback was lower against the yen, with USD/JPYretreating 0.69% to hit 78.12, but higher against the Swiss franc, withUSD/CHF climbing 0.40% to trade at 0.9331.
Earlier in the day, official data showed that consumer price inflation in Switzerland rose by 0.3% in September, in line with expectations, after a flat reading the previous month.
In addition, the greenback was lower against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD falling 0.31% to 0.9758, AUD/USDadding 0.28% to 1.0211 and NZD/USD rising 0.32% to hit 0.8202.
Industry data earlier showed that job advertisements in Australia fell by 2.8% in September, after a 2.4% decline the previous month.
Separately, a report showed that house prices in New Zealand rose 0.6% last month, after a 1.3% increase in August.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.28%, to trade at 79.64.
Trading volumes were expected to be light on Monday, as markets in Japan, Canada and the U.S. remained closed for national holidays.