TOKYO (MarketWatch) — The dollar reeled against major counterparts on Tuesday, after back-to-back speeches by U.S. President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner revealed no progress on talks crucial to raising the U.S. debt ceiling and preventing a default. Speaking from the White House Monday evening, Obama urged congressional leaders to give him a “fair compromise” about cutting the deficit and raising the U.S. debt ceiling in “the next few days.” The dollar initially fell against the yen as Obama spoke, to ¥77.96 from ¥78.24 before the speech, but it pared losses as he finished his remarks. The greenback resumed against the yen its fall as U.S. House Speaker John Boehner spoke, supporting a Republican plan to end the debt stand-off. Read more on Obama and Boehner speeches on U.S. debt. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar USDJPY -0.29% traded at ¥77.98 following the two men’s remarks, down from ¥78.24 late Monday. The worst case scenario for the U.S. dollar is not a lack or agreement, but ”a short-term solution that appears to be favored by some in the U.S. Congress may not be that much better, as it would effectively be seen as ‘kicking the can down the road’,” said Mitul Kotecha, head of global foreign-exchange strategy at Crédit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank, in a note to clients Tuesday. Other major currency pairs saw similar moves to dollar-yen. The euro EURUSD +0.71% rose to $1.4423 from $1.4379 late Monday. See real-time currency quotes and tools. The dollar index DXY -0.55% , which tracks the U.S. unit’s performance against a basket of six other currencies, stood at 73.881, down from 74.074 late Monday. The British pound GBPUSD +0.40% rose to $1.6312 from $1.6296 late Monday, and the Australian dollar AUDUSD +0.66% was buying $1.0879, up from $1.0854. Lisa Twaronite is MarketWatch's Tokyo bureau chief.

Source