Dollar Barely Budges In Subdued Dealing Monday
The dollar was little changed on Monday, staying near its lowest in more than a month versus a basket of major rivals.
The dollar’s prospects have taken a hit in recent weeks, as economists have lowered their U.S. growth forecasts in response to a string of alarmingly weak housing and jobs data.
The markets are betting that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates at effectively zero for another year.
There was no major economic news from the U.S. today, leaving traders to focus on Friday’s abysmal jobs report, which showed only 34,000 new jobs were created last month.
At 3:45 pm ET, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is scheduled to speak to the International Monetary Conference in Atlanta.
The dollar stabilized near $1.46 versus the euro today, having touched a monthly low of $1.4657 in very early dealing.
The euro was hampered by the unresolved Greek debt debacle.
While European officials and the International Monetary Fund have downplayed the threat of a Greek default, markets remain unconvinced that it can be avoided.
The buck drifted below Y80 versus the yen for the first time since early May, but improved by a penny to $1.6350 versus the sterling.
Slight gains took the dollar away from Friday’s record low CHF 0.8327 against the Swiss franc.
In economic news from across the Atlantic, euro area producer price inflation eased slightly in April, data from Eurostat showed.
The total industry producer prices on the domestic market excluding construction rose 6.7 percent year-on-year in April, slower than March’s revised 6.8 percent increase.
Investor confidence in eurozone declined for the third consecutive month in June. The Sentix investor sentiment index, an indicator of confidence around 900 investors, decreased to 3.5 from 10.9 points in May. Economists were expecting a reading of 9.2 points.
