By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch MADRID (MarketWatch) — The U.S. dollar gained in European trading hours on Friday, driven higher by disappointment that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke didn’t give a stronger hint about further monetary stimulus. The euro EURUSD -0.78% traded at $1.2472, after trading at $1.2570 late Thursday in North America. The dollar index DXY +0.64% , which measures the dollar’s performance against a basket of six major currencies, jumped to 82.635 from 82.241 late Thursday. Analysts had been hoping Bernanke would give clear signals over further stimulus for the U.S., but his comments dented hopes that the U.S. could be close to easing. The People’s Bank of China cut key benchmark lending and deposit rates by a quarter-point each on Thursday. “More QE (quantitative easing) from the Fed is not going to be the panacea that investors are hoping for and even Bernanke was rightly warning that its effectiveness would be limited,� said Simon Smith, analyst at FxPro. “And of course it only helps at the margins for the euro zone, if it is seen. So the ‘More QE, sell dollar correlation’ is broken, and has been for some time. It’s not the magic bullet it was once believed to be,� he said in emailed comments. European and Asia stocks fell as Bernanke’s comments weighed and Fitch Ratings downgraded Spain, with a negative outlook, saying it could cost up to 100 billion euros ($125 billion) to bail out the country’s banks. A report on Reuters said the Spanish government could ask for an aid request as soon as this weekend, citing German and European Union sources. Spain could request aid this weekend The U.S. dollar USDJPY -0.45% was buying ¥79.17 compared to ¥79.62 in late trade on Thursday. The British pound GBPUSD -0.62% , which jumped to $1.5416 from $1.5561 Wednesday, traded at $1.5441 from $1.5416 seen late Thursday in North America. Barbara Kollmeyer is an editor for MarketWatch in Madrid.

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