The euro rose against the dollar on Friday on speculation the European Central Bank may start lending to the International Monetary Fund to bail out troubled eurozone economies and as Italian and Spanish bond yields retreated. Sentiment toward the euro remained bearish, however, and the common currency was headed for a third straight week of losses, as fears persisted that the debt crisis could engulf major eurozone states such as France and trigger a break-up of the bloc.
The euro rose more than 1 percent to a session peak of $1.3614 on Reuters data, pulling away from a five-week low of $1.3420 struck on Thursday. It last traded at $1.3562, still up 0.8 percent on the day. The safe-haven Japanese yen and Swiss franc gained. The dollar slid as low as 76.575, the weakest since Japan's massive intervention on October 31, and was last down 0.3 percent at 76.78. The dollar also lost 0.9 percent to 0.9129 Swiss franc.