Investing.com - The dollar rallied to multi-month highs against the yen and the pound on Monday, while the euro was higher despite uncertainty over the outcome of closely watched elections in Italy.
During European morning trade, the dollar hit fresh 33-month highs against the yen, with USD/JPY up 0.56% to 93.88.
The yen weakened across the board following reports that Japan’s prime minister is planning to nominate a strongly pro-easing candidate for the post of Bank of Japan governor.
Japanese government officials said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to nominate Asian Development Bank head Haruhiko Kuroda, as the next governor of the BoJ.
The greenback was trading close to 31-month highs against the pound, with GBP/USD down 0.23% to 1.5139 after ratings agency Moody’s cut the U.K.’s triple-A sovereign rating late Friday.
Moody’s cut the U.K.’s sovereign rating by one notch to Aa1 with a stable outlook late Friday, citing a weak outlook for growth and a rising debt burden.
The dollar was lower against the euro, with EUR/USD rising 0.34% to 1.3232.
Investors remained cautious ahead of the outcome of general elections in Italy, amid concerns that a hung parliament could hamper efforts to implement further economic reforms and lead to instability in the bloc’s third largest economy.
Elsewhere, the greenback was lower against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF down 0.23% to 0.9276.
The greenback was broadly higher against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD up 0.35% to 1.0238, AUD/USD losing 0.27% to trade at 1.0291 and NZD/USD easing up 0.10% to 0.8396.
The Australian dollar was lower after data showed that China’s HSBC flash manufacturing index dropped to a four month low of 50.4 from 52.3 in January, fuelling concerns over the recovery in the world’s second largest economy.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, slipped 0.07% to 80.48.
