Investing.com - The U.S. dollar was mixed against its major counterparts in Asian trade Tuesday, on speculation that Greece’s inability to meet European guidelines for debt progress may delay payment of its latest tranche of rescue funds.
In mid-day Asian trade, the greenback was lower against the euro, with EUR/USD rising 0.24% to hit 1.3208.
Earlier Monday, the Greek government announced its 2011 fiscal deficit would total 8.5% of gross domestic product, well short of the 7.6% target set out by European finance officials as a prerequisite to obtaining a new round of rescue funds.
Meanwhile in Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the Eurogroup meeting of finance ministers, said Monday the group will not yet make a scheduled decision on the next round of bailout payments to Greece.
Elsewhere, the U.S. Institute for Supply Management reported that its Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index rose 51.6 in the month of September, up from 50.6 the previous month.
Market expectations were for the index to register 50.5 for the period.
Indications of increased U.S. manufacturing activity were not enough to save Wall Street issues from posting steep drops by the end of the Monday session; The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.36%, the Nasdaq Composite Index sank 3.29%, while the S&P 500 surrendered 2.85%.
Meanwhile, the greenback was lower against the British pound, with GBP/USD up 0.13% to hit 1.5454.
The dollar was higher against the Japanese yen but down against the Swiss franc with USD/JPY adding 0.12% to hit 76.72, and USD/CHF lower by 0.16% to hit 0.9200.
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The greenback was mixed against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts with USD/CAD down 0.12% to hit 1.0531, AUD/USD down by 0.06% to hit 0.9519, and NZD/USD rising 0.15% to hit 0.7539.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.02% at 80.09.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was scheduled to testify before the Joint Economic Committee in Washington D.C. later Tuesday.