ZURICH: The Swiss franc fell against the dollar on Friday as this week's rise in US Treasury yields helped push the greenback higher and business surveys indicating an improving global economy removed some of the lustre from the safe haven franc.
"The main trigger behind current market movements is US interest rates, we see yields are increasing significantly and this is putting pressure on emerging market currencies, and the Swiss franc and yen are reacting to that," said Commerzbank foreign exchange strategist Lutz Karpowitz.
Even so, the Federal Reserve's apparent commitment to accommodative monetary policy for a prolonged period even with a stable economy and reduced Fed bond buying could keep a brake on the dollar, economists said.
"In the meantime European Central Bank forward guidance is aimed at getting yields in the peripheral markets down, but (Austria's ECB policymaker Ewald) Nowotny said there wouldn't be rate cuts if the euro zone economy picked up as expected," Karpowitz said.
He said the franc could continue to trade in a range of 1.23-1.24 against the euro, with solid macroeconomic data from the euro zone is supporting the higher level.
The franc fell 0.1 percent against the dollar compared to the New York close to trade at 0.9242 by 0704 GMT.
The franc was little changed against the euro at 1.2333 per euro.
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