2018-11-21
The euro rose on Wednesday, buoyed by reports that Italy may be open to reviewing its draft budget for 2019, which could ease a confrontation with the European Union.
 
The European Commission is preparing to take its first step on Wednesday towards punishing Italy over its draft financial plan.
 
But a report said Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salveni may be open to a review of the government's 2019 budget, which helped boost Italian bond markets and the euro on Wednesday.
 
By 0830 GMT, the euro was up 0.3 percent at $ 1.14. The single currency has risen in six of the last seven sessions.
 
The euro pushed the dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six major currencies, down 0.2 percent to 96.621. The index gained 0.65 percent in the last session.
 
The Japanese yen was down 0.15 percent at 112.86.
The pound was up 0.2 percent at $ 1.2808 after losing 0.5 percent against the dollar on Tuesday. Sterling is expected to trade volatile up and down as the market gets more clarity on the progress of the UK separation agreement.
 
The Canadian dollar fell to its lowest level in four months against the US dollar to trade at 1.3305 Canadian dollars to the dollar as the price of crude oil fell to its lowest level in more than a year. Canada is among the world's largest oil exporters.
 
The Australian dollar, usually a measure of risk appetite, rose 0.3 percent to trade at $ 0.7236. The Australian dollar lost more than 1 percent on Tuesday as global risk appetite deteriorated.