Forexpros - The U.S. dollar was mixed against its major counterparts on Thursday, as investors awaited a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke later in the day, for long awaited indications on the central bank’s next policy moves.
During European morning trade, the dollar was lower against the euro, with EUR/USD adding 0.20% to 1.2924.
Markets were eyeing the outcome of the Fed’s policy meeting later Thursday, amid growing speculation that the U.S. central bank may implement a third round of quantitative easing to bolster growth.
The euro remained supported after Germany’s constitutional court approved the country’s participation in the euro zone’s bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism.
The ruling cleared the way for Germany’s president to ratify the ESM under certain conditions, allowing the European Central Bank’s bond purchasing program to proceed.
The German court said that the country’s liability to the EMS must not exceed EUR190 billion without the approval of the lower house of parliament and said that both houses of parliament must be kept informed about decisions relating to the ESM.
The greenback was also lower against the pound, with GBP/USD edging up 0.07% to 1.6118.
Elsewhere, the greenback was lower against the yen, with USD/JPY shedding 0.28% to hit 77.63, and steady against the Swiss franc USD/CHF easing up 0.02% to trade at 0.9373.
Earlier in the day, Swiss National Bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged in September and reaffirmed its commitment to the minimum exchange rate of CHF1.20 per euro.
Separately, official data showed that producer price inflation in Switzerland rose unexpectedly in August, ticking up 0.5% after a 0.3% decline the previous month.
Analysts had expected producer price inflation to ease by 0.4%.
The greenback was mixed against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD inching up 0.05% to 0.9767, AUD/USD falling 0.18% to 1.0446 and NZD/USD edging 0.02% higher to trade at 0.8213.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand left the benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record low of 2.50%, in a widely expected move.
Commenting on the decision, RBNZ Chairman Allan Bollard said there was little need to raise borrowing costs until the second half of 2013 because of risks from the euro zone’s financial crisis and the outlook for New Zealand’s trading partners, including China.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.16%, trading at 79.75.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish government data on producer price inflation, as well as a weekly report on initial jobless claims.
The Federal Reserve was to announce its benchmark interest rate, followed by comments by Chairman Ben Bernanke.
