By Deborah Levine and Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The dollar turned slightly higher Friday, extending steep gains registered in the previous session, as currency traders’ attention swung back to European policy makers.
The dollar index DXY +0.08% , which measures the greenback against a basket of six currencies, stood at 82.379, up from 82.353 late Thursday.
The euro EURUSD -0.02% traded at $1.2538, compared with $1.2546 in late North American trading on Thursday.
Weighing on sentiment, Germany’s closely watched Ifo index of business confidence hit a two-year low in June. Read about German data,.
Little came out of a meeting of euro-zone finance ministers on Thursday, so attention swung to a gathering of the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Spain ahead of the June 28-29 European Union summit.
“The details that emerged from the Eurogroup meeting remain short-term bandaids that are unlikely to address the root of the euro zone’s troubles,” said Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman.
“ Ahead of next week’s summit, expectations for the outcome of the meeting were low but we still suspect that concrete measures are unlikely to emerge at next week’s summit either,” he said. “The result is that the euro and other foreign currencies are likely to reverse their recent gains against the dollar in the very near term.”
On Thursday, the dollar jumped as lackluster U.S. economic data weighed on riskier assets. Read about dollar, U.S. data..
For the week, the dollar index has gained about 0.9% and the euro lost 0.9% versus the U.S. unit.
Also Friday, the British pound GBPUSD -0.08% traded at $1.5593, little changed against the $1.5596 seen late in the previous session.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar USDJPY +0.13% rose to buy ÂĄ80.40 from ÂĄ80.28.
Deborah Levine is a MarketWatch reporter, based in New York.
Sarah Turner is MarketWatch's bureau chief in Sydney.
