Dollar firmer as Euro crisis dominates

THE dollar was trading higher this morning, as European finance ministers continue discussing ways of containing their sovereign debt crisis.

THE dollar was trading higher this morning, as European finance ministers continue discussing ways of containing their sovereign debt crisis.

At 7am AEST today, the dollar was trading at 105.99 US cents, up from 105.78 US cents yesterday afternoon.

Since 5pm AEST yesterday, the local unit traded between 105.24 US cents and 106.40 US cents.

Eurozone finance ministers met overnight to discuss Europe's debt crisis and ongoing contagion concerns.

HiFX senior trader Stuart Ive said investors were optimistic that the ministers would soon find a solution to the crisis.

"European finance ministers are moving to a more solid bail-out to contain the contagion fears, so we saw a little bit of a bounce (in risk sentiment and the Australian dollar)," Mr Ive said.

Chinese gross domestic product (GDP) data, due for release today, should provide some more direction for the dollar, Mr Ive said.

Locally today, Westpac and the Melbourne Institute release their consumer sentiment survey for July and the Australian Bureau of Statistics publishes lending finance data for May.

Mr Ive said the dollar may trade between 105.60 US cents and 106.45 US cents during the domestic session.