The euro rose against the dollar on Wednesday on revived hopes that European leaders will take aggressive steps at a summit this weekend to resolve the region's debt crisis. Although officials dismissed a story in Britain's Guardian newspaper that France and Germany had agreed to a deal boosting the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), investors still latched onto the report as a reason to pare back bets against the euro.
The euro was last up 0.4 percent at $1.3796. It earlier rose as high as $1.3870 on trading platform EBS, approaching the one-month high of $1.39148 set on Monday. Against the yen, the euro rose 0.4 percent to 105.90 yen. It gained 0.6 percent against the Swiss franc to 1.2429 francs, having hit 1.2475 on EBS, the highest level in five months on persistent, though unconfirmed, market talk of the Swiss National Bank raising the euro/Swiss target rate from 1.20 francs.