Investing.com - The U.S. dollar traded lower against its major counterparts Tuesday on strong German confidence numbers and sharply lower Spanish yields signaling investors to embrace risk.
During late session U.S. trade, the greenback traded lower against the euro, with EUR/USD gaining 0.55% to hit 1.2736.
The euro surged over 1% earlier when the German ZEW investor confidence index jumped the most on record. The numbers advanced from minus 21.6 to minus 53.8 in December, the largest gain since the index began in December, 1991, helping to fuel the single currency's advance.
A separate report showed that consumer price inflation in the single currency bloc rose less-than-expected in December, advancing 2.7% after a 2.8% rise the previous month, allowing the European Central Bank more leeway to ease monetary policy.
Meanwhile, Spain auctioned EUR4.9 billion of short-term government debt at sharply lower yields earlier, signaling that investor sentiment has not been damaged by last week’s ratings downgrade.
Risk appetite for the euro was also lifted after better-than-forecast data on Chinese fourth quarter growth eased concerns over the outlook for global economic growth.
But the single currency remained vulnerable after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the triple-A rating of the euro zone’s bailout fund by one notch on Monday, following Friday’s downgrade of nine euro zone sovereigns, including France.
In addition, talks aimed at negotiating a restructuring of Greece’s debts remained deadlocked, amid disagreements over a bond swap with private creditors.
The dollar was down slightly against the pound with GBP/USD easing lower by 0.14% to 1.5348.
Elsewhere, the greenback was higher against the yen and but down against the Swiss franc with USD/JPY up by 0.048% to 76.83 and USD/CHF giving back 0.48% to hit 0.9496.
The greenback was mixed against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand cousins with USD/CAD dropping 0.27% to hit 1.0151, AUD/USD gaining 0.72% to hit 1.0388 and NZD/USD adding 0.87% to 0.8004.
The Bank of Canada stated the outlook for the global economy had “deteriorated” after it left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1% earlier in the session. .
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, gave back 0.44% to hit 81.30.
In the U.S., an index of manufacturing conditions in New York improved more than analyst's expected in January, advancing to the highest level since April.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York stated that its general business conditions index improved by 4.0 points to 13.5 in January from 9.5 in December.
Economists had expected the index to improve by 1.0 point to 10.5 in January.
During late session U.S. trade, the greenback traded lower against the euro, with EUR/USD gaining 0.55% to hit 1.2736.
The euro surged over 1% earlier when the German ZEW investor confidence index jumped the most on record. The numbers advanced from minus 21.6 to minus 53.8 in December, the largest gain since the index began in December, 1991, helping to fuel the single currency's advance.
A separate report showed that consumer price inflation in the single currency bloc rose less-than-expected in December, advancing 2.7% after a 2.8% rise the previous month, allowing the European Central Bank more leeway to ease monetary policy.
Meanwhile, Spain auctioned EUR4.9 billion of short-term government debt at sharply lower yields earlier, signaling that investor sentiment has not been damaged by last week’s ratings downgrade.
Risk appetite for the euro was also lifted after better-than-forecast data on Chinese fourth quarter growth eased concerns over the outlook for global economic growth.
But the single currency remained vulnerable after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the triple-A rating of the euro zone’s bailout fund by one notch on Monday, following Friday’s downgrade of nine euro zone sovereigns, including France.
In addition, talks aimed at negotiating a restructuring of Greece’s debts remained deadlocked, amid disagreements over a bond swap with private creditors.
The dollar was down slightly against the pound with GBP/USD easing lower by 0.14% to 1.5348.
Elsewhere, the greenback was higher against the yen and but down against the Swiss franc with USD/JPY up by 0.048% to 76.83 and USD/CHF giving back 0.48% to hit 0.9496.
The greenback was mixed against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand cousins with USD/CAD dropping 0.27% to hit 1.0151, AUD/USD gaining 0.72% to hit 1.0388 and NZD/USD adding 0.87% to 0.8004.
The Bank of Canada stated the outlook for the global economy had “deteriorated” after it left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1% earlier in the session. .
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, gave back 0.44% to hit 81.30.
In the U.S., an index of manufacturing conditions in New York improved more than analyst's expected in January, advancing to the highest level since April.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York stated that its general business conditions index improved by 4.0 points to 13.5 in January from 9.5 in December.
Economists had expected the index to improve by 1.0 point to 10.5 in January.