The dollar declined broadly on Monday in thin trade, despite words of caution from European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet who repeated that excessive forex market volatility is undesirable.
The euro touched a fresh session high against the dollar, but quickly trimmed those gains, after Trichet's comments before the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee.
In late New York trade, the euro was up 0.25 percent at $1.2766. Trade was relatively thin with many US traders off work for the Presidents Day holiday.
"Anything that signals stability in the euro zone economy is positive for the euro because that would lead to wider interest rate differentials with the US," said Mark McFarland, currency strategist at UBS.
"The market had speculated that Trichet might indicate lower interest rates to stem the euro strength but that hasn't come out yet and people are bidding up the euro as a result," he said.
European finance officials have expressed concern that the soaring euro, which nearly matched its lifetime high of $1.2898 on Friday, could hinder economic growth in euro zone countries.
Traders, however, have yet to see signs that leaders are willing to take aggressive action to curb the gain.
"Really not a lot to go on with Trichet," said Paul McCormack, chief dealer at Investors Bank & Trust in Boston. "They're going to continue to bat (the euro) around verbally. I think people will be looking ahead to (data) later in the week."
In mid-afternoon US trade the dollar fell 0.1 percent to 105.40 yen. The euro was 0.21 percent firmer against the yen at 134.61.
The dollar was down 0.46 percent at $1.2326 Swiss francs. Sterling gained 0.28 percent to $1.8897.
The Bundesbank said in its monthly report that economic recovery in the euro zone remained untainted so far by the dollar's drop against the euro and is being supported by "very generous" monetary conditions.
Reported comments at the weekend by Hans-Werner Sinn, the head of Germany's Io institute, that it was well within the ECB's abilities to aim for a 10 cent reduction in the euro/dollar rate by buying around $30 billion through market intervention added to the mix of market talk.
Analysts said concerns over US budget and current account deficits still left risks skewed to the downside for the dollar, but Friday's price action may also indicate that investors need fresh factors for another push to weaken it further.
Data on Friday showed the US trade deficit grew more than analysts expected while the University of Michigan's index of consumer confidence took an unexpectedly sharp fall as Americans turned cautious over the economy.
On Tuesday, the US Treasury reports its monthly portfolio flow data. Traders also can get a look at data on US industrial production for January. In Asian trading Japan will report its fourth-quarter gross domestic product.
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