News: FOREX-Dollar falls vs euro on profit taking; Fed rate-hike bets cool

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    • Euro rises from recent multi-week low
    • Dollar index eases from more than 8-wk high
    • Traders shy to boost bets on near-term Fed rate hike

    The U.S. dollar fell from near a 10-week high against the euro and rose just slightly against the yen on Wednesday, as traders who are betting that the Federal Reserve will soon raise interest rates took some profits on the greenback's recent gains.

    The euro EUR= was last up 0.17 percent against the dollar at $1.1161. While modest, the euro's percentage gain was on track to mark the first such gain against the dollar in three sessions and marked a rebound from earlier in the day, when the euro sank to match Tuesday's roughly 10-week low of $1.1129.

    The euro has fallen about 1.3 percent since May 18, when minutes from the Federal Reserve's April meeting signaled a potential interest rate increase from the central bank in the near term. Hawkish comments from Fed officials on Monday and some strong U.S. economic data have fanned expectations for a potential June or July rate hike.

    Traders were reluctant to continue bidding the greenback higher on the premise of a near-term Fed hike, especially ahead of the U.S. Memorial Day holiday weekend, said Steven Englander, managing director and global head of G10 FX strategy at Citigroup in New York.

    Investors were also awaiting key events such as May U.S. employment data on June 3 and comments from Fed Chair Janet Yellen on June 6.

    "There's some profit-taking," Englander said. "Investors now are very cautious about trying to ride a theme for a long time."

    The dollar was last up just 0.11 percent against the yen at 110.10 yen JPY= after touching a session high of 110.45 yen.

    Fed funds futures contracts implied traders expected a 32 percent chance of a rate hike in June, down from a 34 percent chance on Tuesday, according to CME Group's FedWatch program.

    The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was last down 0.21 percent at 95.373, easing from a more than eight-week high of 95.661 touched earlier in the session .DXY .

    Debt relief for Greece was also perceived as a positive for the euro, said Sebastien Galy, currency strategist at Deutsche Bank in New York.

    The Eurogroup ministers gave a nod to releasing 10.3 billion euros ($11.48 billion) in new funds for Greece in recognition of painful fiscal reforms pushed through by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' leftist-led coalition.

    The dollar eased against the Swiss franc from a nearly 11-week high of 0.9940 franc, and was last down 0.25 percent at 0.9902 franc CHF= .

 
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