Investing.com - The U.S. dollar moved higher against its major counterparts in Asian trade Thursday, as Wall Street notched a third consecutive day of gains and investors looked to prospects for progress on European sovereign debt.
In mid-day Asian trade, the greenback was higher against the euro, with EUR/USD slipping 0.19% to hit 1.3728.
Earlier Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou spoke to concerns that Greece was in danger of default and would meet its obligations to institute austerity measure to meet its 2011-2012 fiscal targets.
U.S. stocks ended Wednesday trading higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rosing 1.3%, the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 1.6%, and the S&P 500 climbed 1.35%.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported earlier in the day that retail sales in August rose 0.1%, below market expectations of a 0.2% gain.
The figure, an indication of consumer spending for the period, was revised down to a 0.3% gain in May.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released producer price inflation numbers for August, showing that the PPI was flat for the month, following a 0.2% gain in July.
Meanwhile, the greenback was higher against the British pound, with GBP/USD down by 0.07% to hit 1.5756.
The dollar was higher against both the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc with USD/JPY gaining 0.10% to hit 76.71, and USD/CHF up by 0.16% to hit 0.8774.
The greenback was mixed against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts with USD/CAD up 0.20% to hit 0.9913, AUD/USD lower by 0.35% to hit 1.0244, and NZD/USD falling 0.91% to hit 0.8157.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.16% at 77.49.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics was scheduled to release its monthly consumer price index figures later Thursday.