- Emerging market currencies pressured lower
- Speculators pare bullish dollar bets to 5-week low - CFTC
- BOE, ECB seen holding policies steady on Thursday
- Graphic: World FX rates in 2018 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
(Updates market action, adds quote)
The euro and sterling rose against the dollar on Monday after the European Union's top negotiator said an agreement for Britain to leave the economic bloc might be reached in the coming weeks.
The pound in particular had been under pressure in recent weeks on anxiety that Britain would exit from the EU without any formal trading arrangement.
"Sterling bears have been caught off side. The euro is also getting a bump as people are jumping on a 'risk-on' sentiment," said Dean Popplewell, vice president of market analysis at OANDA in Toronto.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier told a forum in Slovenia a Brexit deal was "realistic in six to eight weeks."
Sterling GBP=D3 was up as much as 1 percent versus the dollar. It was last up 0.9 percent at $1.3033, Reuters data showed.
The euro EUR=EBS rose nearly 0.4 percent at $1.15965, while it touched a near one-month low against the pound, last down over 0.5 percent EURGBP=D4 at 88.98 pence.
Policy-makers at the Bank of England and European Central Bank are widely expected to leave their policy unchanged at their respective meetings on Thursday.
"It seems unreasonable to expect (Mario) Draghi to signal a course change" at the ECB, said Win Thin, global head of emerging market currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York. "It is an easy call: unanimous decision to hold after hiking rates last month," Thin added.
The more positive view on Brexit reduced safe-haven holdings of the dollar, whose decline was limited by an upbeat U.S. jobs report released on Friday and lingering worries about emerging market currencies, analysts said.
An index that tracks the dollar against the euro, sterling, yen and three other currencies .DXY was down 0.24 percent at 95.140.
Speculators' net long bets on the U.S. dollar fell to a five-week low, worth $20.60 billion in the week ended Sept. 4, according to calculations by Reuters and Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday.
An index for emerging market currencies .MIEM00000CUS fell 0.5 percent to near one-week lows. The Indian rupee INR= fell to a record low at 72.675 per dollar, while the Hong Kong dollar HKD=D3 hit the lower end of a trading band at 7.85 per U.S. dollar.
Meanwhile, the Swedish crown SEK=D3 , which has been the worst performing currency among the majors, edged up 0.1 percent at 9.059 crown per dollar. Gains for the far right in Sunday's election were smaller than some polls had predicted - even though the country faces weeks of uncertainty as it tries to form a government.
======================================================== Currency bid prices at 2:26PM (1826 GMT)Description RIC Last U.S. Close Pct Change YTD Pct High Bid Low Bid Previous Change Session Euro/Dollar EUR= $1.1596 $1.1551 +0.39% +0.00% +1.1615 +1.1527 Dollar/Yen JPY= 111.1300 111.0500 +0.07% +0.00% +111.1800 +110.8600 Euro/Yen EURJPY= 128.88 128.30 +0.45% +0.00% +129.0600 +127.8900 Dollar/Swiss CHF= 0.9749 0.9691 +0.60% +0.00% +0.9753 +0.9687 Sterling/Dollar GBP= 1.3030 1.2921 +0.84% +0.00% +1.3051 +1.2897 Dollar/Canadian CAD= 1.3160 1.3154 +0.05% +0.00% +1.3197 +1.3151 Australian/Doll AUD= 0.7108 0.7106 +0.03% +0.00% +0.7131 +0.7099 arEuro/Swiss EURCHF= 1.1306 1.1196 +0.98% +0.00% +1.1315 +1.1187 Euro/Sterling EURGBP= 0.8897 0.8943 -0.51% +0.00% +0.8957 +0.8894 NZ Dollar/Dolar NZD= 0.6521 0.6533 -0.18% +0.00% +0.6547 +0.6513 Dollar/Norway NOK= 8.3878 8.4500 -0.74% +0.00% +8.4564 +8.3641 Euro/Norway EURNOK= 9.7269 9.7594 -0.33% +0.00% +9.7714 +9.6948 Dollar/Sweden SEK= 9.0566 9.0570 +0.12% +0.00% +9.0755 +9.0230 Euro/Sweden EURSEK= 10.5043 10.4915 +0.12% +0.00% +10.5087 +10.4267 <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The European Central Bank's QE Programme http//reut.rs/2wOxrNgUSD positions http//reut.rs/2Czgrjk GRAPHIC-From QE to QT: Five questions for the ECB
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