By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) -- The dollar advanced in Asian trading hours on Thursday, rebounding a touch after falling in the previous session amid renewed optimism that Europe is on the path to finding a solution to its debt woes.
The dollar index DXY -0.13% , which measures the greenback against a basket of six currencies, traded at 77.067, just up from 76.977 recorded in late North American trading on Wednesday.
The euro EURUSD +0.06% edged down to $1.3775, from $1.3796 in late trading Wednesday when the single currency jumped after reports that Slovakia is on track to approve its share of the expanded European bailout fund and after European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso unveiled a plan aimed at recapitalizing Europe’s banks. Read more on Barroso plan.
Meanwhile, the minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s latest interest-rate setting committee meeting, released later in the global trading day on Wednesday, showed that members were concerned about the strength of the economy into the end of the year. Read more on Fed minutes.
Still, strategists at BNP Paribas noted “the prevailing view that things are not that bad in the U.S. economy has yet to be challenged by incoming data.”
They added “last night’s Federal Open Market Committee minutes, while suggesting that the Fed is deeply concerned about the outlook, indicate that the economy and financial stresses would need to worsen noticeably in their eyes before quantitative easing is reactivated. It remains our view that this will transpire, but the point is that with investors very flush with cash, the carrot of QE3 is not at this stage required to push money back into riskier assets.”
Sterling GBPUSD -0.07% , which like the euro benefitted from renewed appetite for riskier assets on Wednesday, reached $1.5735 from $1.5761 late the previous day.
The dollar USDJPY -0.21% slipped against the yen, however, The greenback bought 77.04 yen, from ¥77.31 in late trading on Wednesday.
The Australian dollar AUDUSD +0.33% traded at $1.0182, firmly back over parity with the greenback, as investors parsed stronger than expected jobs figures. Read more on jobs figures.
Sarah Turner is MarketWatch's bureau chief in Sydney.
