Lower-than-expected new home sales hurt the greenback late on Thursday, as markets fretted about possible indictments of White House officials and the withdrawal of President George W. Bush's nominee from consideration as a US Supreme Court Justice.
The dollar last traded at 1.2733/36 Swiss francs, down a touch from 1.2741/44 in late trading in Europe on Thursday. The euro stood at 1.5457/58 francs, unchanged from 1.5463/69 francs on Thursday. In Switzerland, a strong reading of the KOF economic sentiment indicator is expected later in the day, with the median in a Reuters poll of 12 economists predicting a rise in the indicator to 0.80 in October from 0.77 last month.