The euro rose against the dollar for a fourth straight session on Thursday, a trend that could continue if upcoming US jobs data adds fuel to risk appetite. While the single-currency was buoyed by generally successful Spanish and French debt auctions, traders were inclined to view gains as good selling opportunities and investors were said to be consolidating their positions ahead of Friday's all-important US non-farm payrolls report for November.
"Jobs have long been the missing ingredient in the US recovery and for the time being, job growth has not been consistently strong enough to make a big dent into the unemployment rate," said Kathy Lien, director of research at GFT Forex in Jersey City, New Jersey.
With Europe expected to remain in the midst of crisis next year, the US could still see slower growth, which is why a third round of Federal Reserve quantitative easing is not off the table, she said. Spain sold 3.75 billion euros of three bonds at the top of the targeted range, they were at levels seen as unsustainable for public finances. France also found demand for its sale of 4.35 billion euros of debt in several maturities.
The euro reached a high of $1.3521, according to Reuters data. Gains dissipated in afternoon New York trading as Wall Street stocks edged lower and investors consolidated positions before Friday's data. Investors are looking at 122,000 new jobs added to the US economy last month and a steady unemployment rate of 9.0 percent. A higher-than-expected number could whet risk appetite once again and lift risk-friendly currencies such as the euro.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi signaled it stood ready to act more aggressively to fight Europe's debt crisis if political leaders agree next week on much tighter budget controls in the 17-nation eurozone. The euro was last up 0.2 percent at $1.3464.
On Wednesday, the euro had hit a one-week high of $1.35337 on trading platform EBS after central banks of the United States and the euro zone, as well as Canada, Britain, Japan and Switzerland cut the cost of dollar loans to the banking system. "We have had some big moves in the euro the last couple of days and a lot of event risks so the market is taking a little bit of a breather and consolidating their gains before tomorrow's big US employment number," said Steven Butler, director of foreign exchange trading at Scotia Capital in Toronto. The dollar index was last down 0.1 percent at 78.294, though off the 77.923 low hit on Wednesday. Against the yen, the dollar was up 0.3 percent at 77.74.