The greenback lost ground against major currencies on Monday, following strong gains last week, on the view that the Federal Reserve will wind down its bond programme this year.

The dollar index, which compares the US currency against a basket of six currencies, declined to 80.2558 from 80.440 on Friday.

The US currency had risen 1% last week after minutes from the last Fed meeting indicated that policy makers were keen to its quantitative easing programme.

However jobs data out on Friday took the wind out of the dollar's sails after figures showed that while jobs were added in December, it was at a slower pace than November's revised figure.

By Monday, dollar impetus was further hurt as focus switched to the European Central Bank's meeting on Thursday. The ECB is widely expected to refrain from cutting interest rates at its meeting this week and markets will be eager to see if any indication of monetary stimulus is given.

Spanish and Italian bond auctions will also move into focus at the end of the week and robust demand is expected to fuel euro gains against the dollar.

The euro changed hands at $1.3111 from $1.3082 the previous session.

Against the yen, the dollar traded at ¥87.83 from ¥88.13 on Friday as profit takers moved in. Sterling rose to $1.6109 from $1.6079 before.




CJ

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