By Lisa Twaronite, MarketWatch
TOKYO (MarketWatch) — The dollar fell Friday after U.S. Treasury yields dropped, leading Asian investors to sell the greenback.
The 10-year Treasury yield , which moves inversely to the price of the note, fell 8 basis points to 3.06% after touching 3.05%, their lowest level since Dec. 7. Read more on Treasury yields.
Despite lingering fears about European sovereign-debt woes, particularly those of Greece, the euro EURUSD +0.7994% rose to $1.4258 from $1.4128 in late North American trading Thursday. See real-time currency quotes and tools.
“We expect there to be political will to find sufficient measures to close the funding gap, enable a disbursement of aid, and avoid an early default,” said Sue Trinh at RBC Capital Markets in reference to Greece.
“The realization of such could see a further squeeze” in the euro, she said in a note to clients. “Until then, choppy trade will persist; note that liquidity will be thinned” by U.K. and U.S. market holidays Monday, she said.
The dollar index DXY -0.63% , which measures the U.S. unit against a basket of six major currencies, fell to 75.071, from 75.598 late Thursday.
The U.S. unit also hit an all-time low against the Swiss franc, falling to 0.8534 francs on the EBS trading platform, and was last buying 0.8577 francs, down 0.9%.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar USDYEN -0.5040% bought ¥81.07, down from ¥81.33 late Thursday.
Currency markets mostly shrugged off data showing Japan’s core consumer price index rose in April for the first time in more than year.
CPI rose 0.6% from the same month a year ago, in line with the median forecast for a 0.6% gain in a poll of 12 economists surveyed by Dow Jones and Nikkei. Core CPI excludes fresh food, but includes energy.
The Australian dollar AUDUSD +0.4703% rose to $1.0684 from $1.0630 late Thursday, and the British pound GBPUSD +0.3051% rose to $1.6425 from $1.6385.
