The Swiss franc rose against the dollar and was close to a new three-year high on Thursday as the US currency continued to fall on worries over Chinese holdings of US assets and fallout from the subprime crisis. The franc was 0.12 percent higher against the US currency at 1.1319 per dollar. The Swiss currency was 0.11 percent higher against the euro at 1.6572 per euro.
"On foreign exchange markets it is the general weakness of the USD versus virtually every other currency including the CHF that clearly stood in the centre of market attention on Wednesday - again," said UBS analyst Reto Huenerwadel.
"In the current shaky state of financial markets it thus remains to be seen how much of a soothing effect is to emerge from the upcoming testimony by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke ahead of the Joint Economic Committee in the US on Thursday," Huenerwadel said.
Euro rates are also waiting on European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet's news conference on Thursday following the bank's monetary policy meeting, at which the ECB is widely expected to hold its benchmark interest rate at 4 percent.