Forexpros - The U.S. dollar was higher against most of its major counterparts on Wednesday, following the disappointing outcome of the previous day's Franco-German summit meeting, while the Swiss franc jumped after the Swiss National Bank announced further measures to weaken the franc, but stopped short of pegging the currency.
During European morning trade, the greenback was up against the euro, with EUR/USD shedding 0.1% to hit 1.4392.
The single currency came under pressure earlier after Tuesday's meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy failed to ease concerns over the euro zone's ongoing sovereign debt crisis.
The two leaders proposed a new council to improve the governance of the euro zone and planned to introduce a financial transaction tax in September.
But they fell short of increasing the region's bailout fund, which many feel is inadequate should the debt crisis spread to Italy, Spain or France.
They also rejected issuing euro bonds, saying that the bonds will not solve the single currency bloc's debt issues, disappointing investors who had been anticipating such an action.
The greenback was also higher against the pound, with GBP/USD dropping 0.43% to hit 1.6384.
The U.K. Office for National Statistics said earlier that the claimant count rose by a seasonally adjusted 37,100 in July, above expectations for an increase of 20,000.
Separately, minutes from the Bank of England's July policy-setting meeting showed that policy makers voted 9-0 to keep rates unchanged at a record low 0.5%.
Meanwhile, the greenback was lower against the safe haven yen and Swiss franc, with USD/JPY falling 0.27% to hit 76.60 and USD/CHF tumbling 1.5% to hit 0.7840.
The Swiss National Bank said earlier that it would take additional measures, including further increasing liquidity to the money market and conducting foreign exchange swap transactions to curb recent gains in the Swissie.
But the central bank stopped short of pegging the currency to the euro or intervening directly in the currency market, as some had speculated in recent days.
Elsewhere, the greenback was higher against the risk-sensitive Australian, New Zealand and Canadian dollars, with AUD/USD slipping 0.05% to hit 1.0479, NZD/USD declining 0.28% to hit 0.8338, while USD/CAD rose 0.04 to hit 0.9827.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.05% to hit 74.08.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish official data on producer price inflation, as well as government data on crude oil stockpiles.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
