Dollar Weakens Versus All of Its Major Peers

The dollar fell the most more than a month against the euro as signs manufacturing is expanding in the U.S. and China damped the appeal of safer assets.

The greenback weakened versus all of its most-traded peers after a U.S. factory gauge rose at the fastest in six months. Data earlier this week showed gains in factory indexes for China and India. The euro advanced from an 11-year low versus the yen after German unemployment fell more than forecast. Australia’s and New Zealand’s dollars rose to the strongest since November.

“One of the factors that’s undermining the dollar today is a reversal of year-end trades into the safe haven of the dollar,” said Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist in New York at Bank of New York Mellon Corp., the world’s largest custodial bank, with more than $26 trillion in assets under administration. “It’s helping reverse international equities and cause some dollar softness right now.”

The dollar fell 0.9 percent to $1.3047 per euro at 12:40 p.m. in New York after dropping as much as 1 percent, the biggest intraday decline since Nov. 30. The U.S. currency declined 0.2 percent to 76.73 yen. The euro gained 0.6 percent to 100.10 yen after falling to 98.66 yesterday, the weakest level since December 2000.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed 1.7 percent.