Forex - Dollar broadly lower as EU summit in focus

Investing.com - The U.S. dollar was broadly lower against its major counterparts on Wednesday, as the euro remained supported ahead of a key European Union summit, but uncertainty over the outcome of the meeting weighed on risk appetite.

During European morning trade, the greenback was down against the euro, with EUR/USD rising 0.27% to hit 1.3944.

Expectations for a breakthrough on a plan to tackle the debt crisis in the euro zone were dented after a meeting of the region’s finance ministers, scheduled to take place ahead of the summit, was cancelled.

The greenback was almost unchanged against the pound, with GBP/USD inching up 0.01% to hit 1.6001.

Meanwhile, the greenback was close to an all-time low against the yen and was also down against the Swiss franc, with USD/JPY dropping 0.26% to hit 75.89 and USD/CHF shedding 0.39% to hit 0.8744.

Speculation over an intervention in the foreign exchange market by Japan mounted after Japanese finance minister Jun Azumi said earlier that he would not rule out any possible measure to curb the appreciation of the yen and added that he has instructed finance ministry officials to "make preparations so that we can act in response to anything."

Elsewhere, the greenback was down against its Canadian counterpart but was higher against its Australian and New Zealand cousins, with USD/CAD slipping 0.22% to hit 1.0144, AUD/USD shedding 0.59% to hit 1.0366 and NZD/USD dipping 0.06% to hit 0.7565.

Earlier in the day, official data showing that Australian core consumer price inflation rose at the slowest pace since 2000 added to speculation over the possibility of a near-term rate cut by the country’s central bank.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.18% to hit 76.26.

Later Wednesday, the U.S. was to release government data on durable goods orders, as well as official data on new home sales and crude oil stockpiles.