For the first time in five days the dollar rose against the euro on forex trade as traders concluded economic recovery will be too weak to sustain gains in higher-yielding assets and went for the safety bet.

Greenback was up against all major currencies and the euro was down versus the dollar as numbers showed the 16-countries economy contracted further on the first quarter. Demands for safety currencies, such as the dollar, drove investors away from riskier assets such as stocks.

 “The dollar’s strength today is that people know these positions are a bit stretched,” said foreign- exchange strategist at UBS AG, Geoffrey Yu.  “The markets need to realize things are not as good as what have been priced in right now.”

U.S. Currency rose 0.8 percent to $1.4188 per euro in early New York trades from $1.4303 on a previous session. The greenback gained as much as 1 percent, the biggest advance since May 27th on trading software fx.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke seemed worried about the U.S. Government having to continuously borrow money to cover budget deficits.

European stocks fell after report on gross domestic product showed a 2.5 percent contraction in the first quarter.