MW: Dollar slips, euro edges up ahead of EU summit
By William L. Watts, MarketWatch
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — The U.S. dollar traded slightly lower as the euro posted a small gain in range-bound trade Wednesday ahead of a closely-watched summit of European leaders.
The euro EURUSD +0.13% traded at $1.3933 versus the U.S. dollar, up 0.2% from Tuesday.
“Markets remain on standby with a mild positive tone, expecting little from the EU [European Union] meeting beyond what has already been announced or leaked,” wrote strategists at Societe Generale.
European leaders, meeting for the second time in four days, are aiming to make progress on a wide-ranging plan to contain the euro-zone debt crisis, but have reportedly hit snags over calls for bond holders to take bigger losses on Greek debt and efforts to boost the firepower of the region’s bailout fund.
The dollar index DXY -0.15% , which tracks the U.S. unit against a basket of six major rivals, slipped 0.1% to 76.122.
The U.S. dollar fell 0.3% versus the Japanese yen to 75.84 yen USDJPY -0.31% , while the British pound GBPUSD -0.13% fell 0.2% to $1.5973 against the greenback.
William L. Watts is a reporter for MarketWatch in Frankfurt.