Stocks steady but US fiscal worries linger

The single currency rose 0.2 percent to around $1.2722 on Wednesday and climbed around 0.3 percent against the yen.

The single currency has fallen nearly 2 percent against the dollar and more than 1.5 percent against the yen in November as concerns about Greece and Spain have pushed investors towards the safe-haven U.S. and Japanese currencies.

Greece's international lenders on Monday gave the country more time to fix its budget, though they did not disburse the aid Greece had hoped to use to refinance 5 billion euros of its debt by Friday.

The International Monetary Fund and euro zone policymakers remain at odds over a long-term target to bring Greece's debt down and the IMF's push for the euro zone to take further losses on Greek debt.

For the moment, the market's focus is on whether they can decide on a deal for Greece next week, said Teppei Ino, currency analyst at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.

Commodity markets were subdued, with Brent crude easing 0.3 percent to fall just below $108 a barrel and U.S. crude off a few cents around $85.35.

Copper lost 0.2 percent to $7,665 a tonne, but gold inched up, gaining 0.2 percent to trade around $1,728.50 an ounce.