MW: Dollar gives up gains after data, Italian auction
Swiss National Bank reaffirms floor for Swiss franc
By Deborah Levine and V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The dollar gave up gains on Thursday after a U.S. economic report pointed to weakness in the labor market, while Italy’s need to pay very high borrowing costs at a debt auction kept the euro for benefitting much.
The dollar index DXY -0.15% , a measure of the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, edged down to 82.116, from 82.126 on Wednesday.
The common currency EURUSD +0.35% erased a loss to trade at $1.2571, from $1.2579 in North American trade on Wednesday.
The Swiss franc briefly spiked up, then returned back to around 1.20 Swiss francs per euro after the Swiss National Bank repeated its pledge to enforce the minimum exchange rate of with the utmost determination.
In its quarterly assessment of monetary policy, the Swiss central bank reaffirmed its readiness to buy foreign currency in unlimited quantities for this purpose, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
The euro EURCHF -0.01% bought 1.2013 Swiss francs compared with 1.2007 francs Wednesday.
The dollar USDCHF -0.34% traded at 0.9551 Swiss francs, from 0.9548 francs in the prior session.
“The SNB left policy unchanged repeating its line on defending the Swiss franc cap with no details on further measures,” said Elsa Lignos, senior currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets. “We expect the market will keep testing but the SNB will maintain its bid at 1.20.”
Deborah Levine is a MarketWatch reporter, based in New York.
Varahabhotla Phani Kumar is a reporter in MarketWatch's Hong Kong bureau.
