The euro slid from a six-week high on Tuesday after the cancellation of a European finance ministers meeting raised doubts an EU summit would deliver a comprehensive plan to contain the region's debt crisis. With Wednesday's European Union leaders' summit still scheduled to take place, expectations of a broad agreement were tempered by fears any accord could lack details and disappoint markets.
The single eurozone currency earlier fell to New York session lows after a report said the meeting of EU finance ministers was cancelled as details of issues to be discussed at the gathering have not been finalised. In late morning trading, the euro was last at $1.39022, down 0.2 percent on the day, after earlier falling to $1.38491 on news of the cancellation.
The euro also hit $1.39605 earlier in the global session, its highest level since September 8 on trading platform EBS. The dollar was down 0.3 percent at 75.830 yen, after hitting a record low of 75.750 yen earlier. The dollar index, which measures the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was last up 0.2 percent at 76.148.