US dollar Strengthens Against Most Major Currencies

With the exception of the Canadian dollar, the U.S. dollar gained against the major currencies today, including its best performance against the euro since December 2007. The euro finished down 0.0209 to end at 1.5679 against the U.S. dollar.

The U.S. Dollar Index ended up by 0.757 points to finish at 72.575. The Index measures the US dollar against the Canadian dollar, pound sterling, Swedish krona, Japanese yen, and euro.

"Now that we tried and failed to stay above $1.60 in euro/dollar, it looks like we're coming back to the bottom," said Brian Dolan, head of research at consultancy Forex.com, in Bedminster, New Jersey. "The U.S. data today is pretty clearly dollar positive and we're coming off some weaker European data."

The Zurich-based UBS AG looks at the euro's performance against the dollar to fall in the range of $1.47 in three months, while within a month it projects it to be at about $1.55.

Better-than-expected employment news and strengthening of the dollar has investors and analysts wondering which way the Fed will go at their meeting next week as far as rate cuts go. It looks like it could be a toss up whether the expected quarter-percentage-point cut will come.