Euro hits session highs vs dollar as US stocks gain

NEW YORK, Dec 2 (Reuters) - The euro raced to session highs against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, buoyed by sharp gains on Wall Street.

The euro zone single currency climbed to intraday peaks at $1.2765 EUR=, before trading back down to $1.2750, still up 1.0 percent from late on Monday.

U.S. stock indexes rose, with the S&P 500 .SPX and the Nasdaq index .IXIC up more than 2 percent on the day. Analysts said upbeat comments from beleaguered U.S. automaker Ford Motor Co. (F.N) have underpinned the stock market.

Ford said it expects overall automotive business pretax results to break even or be profitable in 2011. For more see [ID:nWNA0721].

"The euro is chasing stocks at the moment," said Steven Butler, director of foreign exchange trading at Scotia Capital in Toronto. "When we took out resistance at $1.2720, the euro just broke away. I still think there may be stiff resistance at $1.28." (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by James Dalgleish)