Early trade in New York: Franc under pressure, euro broadly stronger

The Swiss franc dominated trade on major currency markets again on Thursday, weakening against the euro and the US dollar on renewed speculation of intervention by the Swiss National Bank, while commodity-based currencies fell against the greenback. The euro gained broadly, even in the face of Greek political ructions with the European Union, although the dominant theme of US dollar strength is taking all but a pause.
"Despite all the uncertainties related to Greece, the euro is trading resiliently off the recent low," said Alan Ruskin, global head of currency strategy at Deutsche Bank in New York. In mid-morning New York trade, the euro strengthened to 1.0451 Swiss francs, up 2.30 percent on the EBS trading platform. This is by far its strongest since the SNB triggered the most violent move in a major currency in four decades by scrapping its cap on the franc two weeks ago. The dollar rose 1.45 percent to 0.9183 franc. The euro gained 0.40 percent to $1.13325. The kiwi traded at $0.7285, down 0.4 percent on the day, having hit a four-year low of $0.7263. The Aussie sank almost 1.5 percent to a 5-1/2-year low of $0.7763.