Credit: Forexpros - The U.S. dollar was mixed against its major counterparts on Monday, as markets awaited key U.S. data to gauge the strength of the U.S. economic recovery, while the Swiss franc was weighed amid speculation the Swiss National Bank would set an exchange rate to stem gains in the currency.
During European afternoon trade, the greenback was down against the euro, with EUR/USD gaining 0.45% to hit 1.4313.
Markets were awaiting Tuesday's meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, to further asses the region's debt crisis and how officials plan to handle escalating contagion threats.
The greenback was also lower against the pound, with GBP/USD climbing 0.23% to hit 1.6319.
Bank of England policy maker David Miles said earlier that the U.K. economy is on a fragile recovery path, but added that further quantitative easing was not necessary at the moment.
Meanwhile, the greenback eased up against the yen, with USD/JPY edging 0.13% higher to hit 76.78.
Preliminary data released earlier in the day showed that Japan's gross domestic product shrank by 0.3% in the second quarter, or 1.3% on an annualized basis. Analysts had expected Japan's economy to contract by 0.9% in the quarter, or 2.5% on an annualized basis.
The yen was also weighed after Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda pledged to take "bold action" to curb gains in the yen.
The dollar was also higher against the safe haven Swiss franc, with USD/CHF jumping 1.8% to hit 0.7919.
Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung reported on Sunday that the Swiss National Bank and the Swiss government were in "intense talks" over a possible exchange rate target level to curb strong gains in the currency.
Elsewhere, the greenback was lower against its Australian and Canadian counterparts, but up against the New Zealand dollar, with AUD/USD rising 0.52% to hit 1.0410, USD/CAD shedding 0.14% to hit 0.9858, while NZD/USD slipped 0.36% to hit 0.8292.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.26% to hit 74.51.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to produce official data on manufacturing activity in New York State and a report on the balance of domestic and foreign investment in the U.S.
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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.
