NEW YORK: The US dollar retreated Monday against the euro and other major currencies as financial markets girded for a meeting later this week of the European Central Bank.
The euro was valued at US$1.3115 dollars at 22H00 GMT Monday, up from Friday's value of US$1.3067 at the same time.
The US dollar was also lower against the Japanese yen, trading at 87.89 Monday instead of the 88.15 level on Friday night.
The quarterly earnings season unofficially kicks off Tuesday with the report from aluminium producer Alcoa. Several US Federal Reserve officials have public appearances this week.
Given the lack of US economic data to be released this week, "we believe that the US dollar will take its cue from earnings and comments from the Fed officials," said Kathy Lien of BK Asset Management.
After focusing heavily on the US due to the much-touted debate on the fiscal cliff, financial markets were beginning to turn to the euro again with Thursday's meeting of the ECB.
That said, Thursday's ECB meeting "offers little reason to be bullish (about) the euro," said Christopher Vecchio, currency analyst at DailyFX.
Vecchio noted that the euro had fallen after the November and December ECB meetings, which followed a September announcement by ECB President Mario Draghi of a program to keep Italian and Spanish borrowing costs down.
The euro did, however, pick up support on news that former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi would not seek election during the Italian elections next month.
Watchers of the Federal Reserve will be looking for signs later this week in public appearances by the presidents of the Fed banks of Kansas City, Philadelphia and Richmond.
Minutes released by the Federal Reserve last week showed that the US central bank is considering ending its aggressive stimulus plan more quickly than expected. But some market watchers say the Fed will be unlikely to pull the plug on the program given last week's weak jobs report.
"The confusion created by the FOMC minutes makes this week's comments from Fed presidents extremely important because investors want to know how serious the central bank is about phasing out" its stimulus program, Lien said.
The US dollar fell against the Swiss currency, to 0.9212 francs from 0.9246 francs late Friday, while the pound rose to US$1.6114 from US$1.6068.
- AFP/jc
US Dollar falls ahead of ECB meeting
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US Dollar falls ahead of ECB meeting
