Dollar gains against euro following fed chief testimony

Words of the U.S.' central banker on Thursday strengthened the U.S. dollar against the common currency of the European Union, according to Reuters.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is fully prepared to protect the globe's largest economy, chair Benjamin Bernanke told lawmakers on Capitol Hill. But he did not indicate whether additional intervention is afoot. Conjecture has been growing about whether the Fed will deploy a third round of quantitative easing, more colloquially known as QE3.

"I don't think he is definitely saying that QE3 is on the way," vice president Fabian Eliasson with Mizuho Corporate Bank in New York told the news source. "He's saying what he has said before, reassuring people that they will act if things deteriorate further. In other words, they are there if needed, but they don't feel they are needed yet."

Strategies to spur the economy typically draw down the value of the U.S. dollar so no commentary about those methods from Bernanke while under oath before congress boosts the monetary unit's rate against rival currencies.

But Bernanke also noted that the sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone poses significant threats to the U.S. economy, according to Bloomberg.