Watch Me TRADE's video: Trading The US Financial Markets May 10 2012

The U.S. dollar turned higher Thursday, pushing up an index of the greenback's performance against six major currencies for a ninth straight daily gain, its longest since August 2008. The greenback was lower against the euro through much of the session as Greece looks closer to a political solution and a major Spanish bank garnered some financial support, calming worried investors. Greece on brink of breakdown The Greek rescue plan is on the brink of collapse as participants in the weekend's elections have failed to form a government and the rescue package threatens to unravel the common currency. The ICE dollar index DXY -0.02% rose to 80.159, off its lows of the session and from 80.083 late Wednesday. The index hasn't risen for nine days since August 2008, as the U.S. credit crisis deepened and an 11-day gain came as the U.S. tried to save Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The euro EURUSD +0.1312% turned down to $1.2943, from $1.2954 in late North American trading Wednesday. The euro had risen as high as $1.2979 in earlier action, according to FactSet Research data. Against the Japanese yen USDJPY +0.4407% , the dollar rose to ¥79.99, from ¥79.65. There appeared to be some progress by Greek party leaders to end a political gridlock after weekend elections, as the leader of Greece's Democratic Left party appealed to his rivals Thursday to join forces with him in an all-party government, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Read more on Greece. Greece's top two vote-winning parties in weekend elections have failed in efforts to form a coalition government, and a failure by the third-ranked party "would mean new elections to take place in June and yet another period of political uncertainty," a Brown Brothers Harriman note stated. The euro recovered following an announcement in the prior session that the European Financial Stability Facility will give Greece most of its next aid tranche on schedule. Also late Wednesday, Spain moved to partly nationalize Bankia SA ES:BKIA -1.17% , that country's fourth-largest lender, and is expected to further stabilize its ailing financial sector. Read story on Spain, Greece. Across the Atlantic, U.S. stock markets gained, with the S&P 500 Index SPX +0.25% up 0.4%, following jobless-claims data. See more on U.S. stocks. While the news offers some limited stability, the euro remains destined to fall to $1.27 by the middle of the year, said strategists at Brown Brothers. "We suspect none of the improvements are likely to prove lasting as these governments all continue to push austerity," they wrote in a note. Spanish markets are being helped by the Bankia news, but questions persist ahead of a wider-ranging bank overhaul plan expected to be made public Friday, they said. China, Bank of England The dollar found support in earlier action after Chinese data showed a sharp drop in import and export activity during April. Read more on China's trade data. "The poor import number bodes ill for [gross domestic product] growth. It should be a wake-up call for policy makers to do more to stimulate domestic demand, and is likely to lead to further elevated fiscal spending and monetary easing," said Dariusz Kowalczyk, a strategist at Crédit Agricole. Gains made earlier this week for the dollar came as investors weighed the chances that Greece would exit the euro following the inconclusive weekend parliamentary vote. Also Thursday, the British pound GBPUSD +0.1621% traded at $1.6156, up from $1.6141 late Wednesday. The Bank of England, as expected, left its key lending rate unchanged at 0.5% and made no move to boost the size of its asset-purchase program. See full story on Bank of England. The Australian dollar AUDUSD +0.4384% pared gains to $1.0099 from its $1.0058 level late Wednesday after strong employment data for April