FX Roundup: Dollar reverses declines as euro tumbles

The dollar surged against a basket of global currencies on Wednesday, with European Central Bank’s upcoming meeting weighing on the euro.

US data released earlier in the session suggested the country's private sector created 217,000 jobs in November. According to ADP and Moody's Analytics, the figure was better than the previous month's reading of 196,000 and market expectations for a reading of 190,000.

At 1426 GMT, the dollar was up 0.36% against the yen exchanging at JPY123.31. In tandem, the pound and euro fell 0.54% and 0.39% to exchange at $1.500 and $1.0592 respectively, with the latter shedding the previous session's marginal gains and inching ever closer to dollar parity.

Completing a clean sweep of major crosses, the greenback also rose 0.12% against the Swiss franc exchanging at CHF1.0271, staying above parity in its favour during afternoon European trading.

Kit Juckes, head of forex at Societe Generale, said: “The Euro got a lift from the contrast between European and US manufacturing PMI data, but while it is holding above $1.06, it is hardly impressing. A break lower to test the year's lows after the ECB meeting and before the US Federal Reserve's meeting still seems likely. A bounce after the Fed meeting is still our best guess thereafter.”

The greenback also traded higher against the commodities-linked including the Norwegian Krone by 0.13% changing hands at NOK8.6328, accompanied by gains of 0.10%, 1.57% and 0.31% against the Chilean peso, Colombian Peso and Canadian dollar, changing hands at CLP$703.69, COP$3,173.06 and CAD$1.3400 respectively.

Finally, the Australian dollar also fell against its US counterpart by a marginal 0.06% changing hands at US$0.7319, while the New Zealand dollar shed 0.36% against the greenback changing hands at US$0.6653.