On Tuesday the US currency slipped lower against its peers, as there appeared hopes for resolution between Greece's new government and creditors. Yesterday's pessimistic US data continued to weigh as well.
Investing's U.S. dollar index, which estimates the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.17% to 94.66.
Sentiment on the dollar remained fragile after data on Monday
showed that U.S. consumer spending fell at the fastest rate since
September 2009 in December, dropping 0.3% as households saved on cheaper
gasoline prices.
More data showed that U.S. construction spending rose less than expected in December, while manufacturing growth slowed.
EUR/USD rose 0.09% to 1.1352. The euro found some support the Greek government outlined its plans to renegotiate the terms of its bailout with its creditors, retreating from demands for a debt writedown. Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has emphasized a “menu of debt swaps” to soften the severety of the country’s debt, under which creditors would swap outstanding debt for new growth-linked bonds.
There was also good news for the euro from Spain. Earlier Tuesday, Spain’s Employment Ministry earlier reported that the number of unemployed people increased by 78,000 last month, disappointing expectations for a drop of 32,400. The number of unemployed people fell by 64,400 in December.
The pair USD/CHF fell 0.21% to trade at 0.9261 and EUR/CHF
slipped 0.12% to 1.0512 after rallying over 1% amid reports the Swiss
National Bank was unofficially targeting an exchange rate of 1.05 to
1.10 francs per euro.
Figures from the SNB on Monday showed that sight deposits jumped to 383.32 billion francs last week after an 8% increase in the previous week to 365.48 billion francs. The data signaled that the bank has been purchasing foreign currency in the market.
