06:37 AM EDT, 05/23/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The US dollar fell against all major currencies during early European trade on Thursday as the market overlooked a hawkish set of FOMC minutes from Wednesday and 'high beta' currencies outperformed amid robust risk appetite.

All G10 currencies rose against the US dollar, which sustained its largest losses in relation to the high beta New Zealand dollar, Norwegian krone and Swedish krona, while falling the least against pound sterling and the Japanese yen.

The G20 group was a mixed bag, meanwhile, with the Chinese renminbi and South African rand both falling more than half a percent against the greenback and underperforming the basket as the high-yielding Mexican peso edged higher.

Dollar losses were broad based and came as rising stock markets in Europe and Asia signaled healthy risk appetite among investors despite a hawkish set of minutes from the May Federal Reserve meeting out late on Wednesday.

The minutes said "various participants" were willing to raise interest rates further if US inflation pressures merit it and that "participants" discussed holding rates at current levels until inflation shows signs of returning sustainably to the 2% target.

Attention now turns to the 8:30 ET release of weekly unemployment claims figures and 9:45 release of S&P Global PMI surveys of the manufacturing and services sectors in the US.

A quick summary of foreign exchange activity heading into the European lunch hour and US open;

In Europe, EUR/USD was quoted 0.20% higher at 1.0846 after rising from session lows around 1.0812 when the HCOB Flash Composite PMI surprised on the strong side of expectations for May, led by a rebound in the beleaguered manufacturing sector. The composite PMI rose to 52.3 in May, from 51.7,, with all of the increase coming as a result of an improvement in the Flash Manufacturing PMI. Meanwhile, the PMI's prices indices indicated moderating inflation pressures in May.

Elsewhere in Europe, GBP/USD was quoted 0.04% higher at 1.2725 with sterling underperforming alongside the US dollar and Japanese yen after the S&P Global Flash Composite PMI surprised on the downside of expectations for May due to a moderation of activity in Britain's dominant services sector. The S&P Global Flash Composite PMI fell to 52.8 in May, from 54.1, while companies reported the softest increase in average selling prices for more than three years, indicating that inflation moderated further in May.

In Japan USD/JPY was quoted 0.03% lower at 156.68 but remained close to its post-intervention highs following a mixed bag of local economic figures. The Jibun Bank Flash Composite PMI rose to 52.4 in May, from 52.3 in April, soon after Ministry of Finance data showed investment-related capital outflows accelerating in the week to May 18. Foreign bond investment rose to 2.19 trillion yen last week, more than reversing the prior 390.6 billion yen fall, while foreigners' stock investment fell to 248.1 billion yen, from 664.8 billion yen previously.

Back in North America, USD/CAD was quoted 0.15% lower at 1.3669, making the Canadian dollar one of the poorer performing G10 currencies of the session perhaps owing to the weakness of the US dollar. There was no data released overnight in Canada where market attention is on the 8:30 ET release of the New Housing Price Index. This is the highlight ahead of Friday's release of retail sales figures for March.