The euro hit its highest in nearly a month against the dollar on Monday after eurozone finance ministers agreed a rescue package for Greece, but further gains were limited on cautionary comments from Germany. The ministers approved a 30 billion euro ($40.5 billion) aid package of loans, which Greece could tap if needed, with at least 10 billion euros also expected from the International Monetary Fund.
The massive financial safety net boosted investor appetite for riskier assets, helping the Australian dollar to its highest in five months and the New Zealand dollar to its strongest since late January earlier in the day. The euro rose as high as $1.3691, its highest since mid-March, before trimming gains to the session low of $1.3589 by 1015 GMT. It had risen more than 1 percent to 127.45 yen earlier.
Greece will test market appetite for its debt further on Tuesday with an auction of 1.2 billion euros of Treasury bills on Tuesday. The Australian dollar rose as high as $0.9382 before trimming gains to $0.9292 in Europe while the New Zealand dollar hit a peak of $0.7194.
The dollar fell 0.7 percent against a basket of major currencies as a week of first-quarter earnings, from companies including Alcoa, J.P. Morgan, General Electric and Intel, kicked off. The yen fell 0.4 percent to 93.57 per dollar with a possible revaluation in China's yuan currency in focus. Chinese President Hu Jintao visits Washington this week for a nuclear security summit and is expected to hold a one-on-one meeting with US President Barack Obama on Monday.
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