Investing.com - The U.S. dollar moved lower against its major counterparts in Asian trade Wednesday, as hopes for a concerted effort from European officials to tackle the region’s debt surrounded their scheduled meeting in Brussels later in the day.
In mid-day Asian trade, the greenback was lower against the euro, with EUR/USD gaining 0.10% to hit 1.3922.
Leaders from 27 European countries were scheduled to meet in Brussels later Wednesday, followed by a meeting between heads of the 17-nation euro-zone. Finance officials were to meet at an as-yet undetermined later date to work out the details of whatever scheme is agreed upon.
At the heart of the debate is an expansion of the European Financial Stability Facility, the USD603 billion rescue fund for debt threatened euro-zone nations. France has pressed for additional funding from the European Central Bank while Germany has argued that such an approach would undermine the independence of the ECB.
Confidence in the success of the discussions was dented, as the meeting of European Union finance officials scheduled to take place before the summit was cancelled.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned that failure to extinguish Europe’s debt threat would have a potentially catastrophic effect on the world economy.
“They’re saying a lot of the right things and they’re clearly working on it and they’re moving with a great sense of urgency. That’s all welcome, but until we see what they come together with, it’s a little hard to evaluate,” Geithner told reporters Tuesday.
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In Tuesday trade, Wall Street shares sagged on a disappointing third-quarter earnings report from Amazon.com Inc. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.74%, the Nasdaq Composite Index surrendered 2.26%, and the S&P 500 gave up 2%.
Earlier in the day, the Conference Board reported that U.S. consumer confidence fell by 6.8 points to 39.8 in October, down from 46.6 in September. Market expectations were for the index to drop by 0.6 points to 46.0 for the period.
Meanwhile, the greenback was lower against the British pound, with GBP/USD gaining 0.16% to hit 1.6025.
The dollar was lower against the Japanese yen but up against the Swiss franc with USD/JPY down 0.08% to hit 76.03, and USD/CHF fractionally higher by 0.04% to hit 0.8784.
The greenback was mixed against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts with USD/CAD down 0.20% to hit 1.0146, AUD/USD lower by 0.48% to hit 1.0378, and NZD/USD falling 0.05% to hit 0.7966.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.05% at 76.36.
The U.S. Census Bureau was scheduled to release its latest monthly figures for durable goods orders later Wednesday.