Dollar benefits from Europe’s debt muddle

NEW YORK — The US dollar gained against other major currencies on Friday, while the euro fell after a meeting of European finance ministers made little progress towards resolving the eurozone’s debt crisis.

The dollar strengthened to $1.3797 against the euro at 2100 GMT on Friday, compared to $1.3882 at the same time a day earlier.

Against Japan’s currency, the dollar rose to 76.77 yen late on Friday from 76.66 the previous day.

“The single currency is slipping on a lack of concrete news from today’s European finance minister meeting,” said Nick Bennenbroek, head of currency strategy for Wells Fargo.

“With European jitters set to persist and despite the possibility of Fed easing, we still see potential for some further upside in the greenback over the near-term.”

At their meeting in Poland on Friday, eurozone finance ministers delayed an eight-billion-euro ($11 billion) bailout loan for Greece until they had firmer evidence of Athens’s willingness to cut its
deficit.

And in a sign of friction, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who was also attending the meeting, clashed with his German counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble over Europe’s handling of the debt crisis.

The dollar climbed to 0.8754 Swiss francs from 0.8689 on Thursday. It also gained against the British pound; the greenback stood at $1.5786 to the pound on Friday, compared to $1.5802 the previous day.