The Swiss franc fell against the euro and the dollar on Monday, paring some of Friday's gains when lower equity markets encouraged investors to take advantage of the currency's safe-haven function. "The franc is a little bit lower. This is a correction of the gains seen last Friday, which was due to weaker equity markets," said Credit Suisse forex analyst Marcus Hettinger.
The franc was trading lower against the euro at 1.6181 per euro compared to the New York close of 1.6136 per euro. The franc was also lower against dollar at 1.0393 versus 1.0353, per dollar on Friday. "There is likely to be consolidation in the forex markets and we expect the franc to trade between 1.03 and 1.05 per dollar going into the Federal Reserve policy meeting later this week," Hettinger said.
The Fed wraps up a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday and is widely expected to leave rates unchanged at 2 percent. The focal point will be the post-meeting statement for clues about whether the central bank can lift rates later in the year. Meanwhile, markets were expected to focus on Germany's Ifo data today, Hettinger said, for signs as to whether the European economy is robust enough for the European Central Bank to raise interest rates beyond July.