The euro dropped today as the European sovereign-debt crisis continues undermine the confidence in Europe’s economy and after Ireland’s credit rating was downgraded.

The Dollar Index, which tracks the US currency versus the currencies of six biggest US trading partners, rose 0.1 percent to 80.099. Fitch downgraded yesterday Ireland’s credit rating from A+ to BBB+. The President of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet and the ECB Governing Council member Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez will speak to reporters in Madrid today.

The euro dropped today as the European policy makers were divided on today’s meeting in their opinion on how to deal with the Eurozone sovereign-debt crisis.

The official of the European Union met today in Brussels to discuss the possible ways out of the debt crisis. Didier Reynders, the Belgian Minister of Finance, whose country holds the EU presidency until the end of this year, proposed to increase the €750 billion ($1 trillion) bailout fund. Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France, were opposed to this proposition.

The euro dropped today as the workers in Portugal and Ireland are planning to go on strike to protest about the planned austerity measures, curbing the appeal of the shared 16-nation European currency.

Portugal’s government announced in September that it’s planning to cut the wage bill by 5 percent for the public workers earning more than €1,500 ($2,000) a month, freeze the hiring and raise value-added taxes by 20 basis points to 23 percent in order to reduce the budget deficit. The workers in Portugal went on the strike yesterday ahead of the final vote in parliament on November 26th on Portugal’s spending plan for 2011, which includes measures to cut the deficit. Ireland’s labor unions are also planning to protest against the austerity measure on November 27th.

The USD advanced after the report showed that the US GDP and manufacturing expanded and on concerns for the European debt crisis and the Korean conflict.

The preliminary report on the US gross domestic product showed that the US economy grew 2.5 percent in the third quarter of this year. The analysts expected the growth by 2.3%. The Manufacturing Activity Index of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond rose to 9 in November from October’s reading of 5. The expected value was 6.

The USD went up today against the euro and the GBP as many traders believed in the positive effect of the quantitative easing on the US economy, despite the criticism from the economists. The dollar dropped against the Japanese currency.

The Dollar Index, which tracks the performance of the US currency versus the currencies of the US six major trading partners, jumped as much as 5.1 percent after it reached it lowest level this year on November 4th. Futures traders trimmed their bets on the decline of the dollar versus the euro, the yen, the Australian dollar and the Swiss franc.