The U.S. dollar traded mixed against major currencies in late New York trading on Monday as Italian debt problems drew investors' attention and weighed on the euro.
Top officials of European Central Bank and the European Commission met on Monday to discuss the possibility that the debt problems could spread to Italy from Greece. On Friday, Italian government bond yields jumped as investors fled from the high risk bonds which may default.
The rating agency Standard & Poor's warned that it may cut Italian sovereign credit ratings in the next 24 months if the country's debt situation continued to deteriorate.
The concerns over European debt problems pressured on the euro as it dipped more than 1 percent to just above 1.40 against the dollar in late trading session on Monday.
The dollar index rose 1.1 percent to 76.
In late Monday trading, the dollar bought 80.13 yen, comparing with 80.71 yen late Friday, and the euro fell to 1.4024 dollars from 1.4248.
The British pound also fell to 1.5912 dollars from 1.6031. The dollar fell from 0.8367 Swiss francs to 0.8351, but rose to 0.9681 Canadian dollars from 0.9614.
