Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar fell to a record low against the euro for a third straight day in New York trading on pre-set orders to sell the U.S. currency when it reached $1.20 per euro.

Strategists including Monica Fan of Royal Bank of Canada in London said concern that the U.S. economy will fail to attract the foreign investment needed to narrow its current-account deficit helped push the dollar lower.

``A weaker dollar is still the central bet until we see a change in U.S. financing requirements,'' Fan told Bloomberg News in a televised interview. The next so-called resistance level for the euro is $1.2160, she said.

The U.S. currency fell to $1.2073 per euro at 10:49 a.m. in New York from $1.1978 yesterday. It also fell against the yen, to 109.21 yen per dollar from 109.41 yesterday.

``A lot of this is technical,'' meaning it was triggered by so-called stop-loss orders by traders, said Brian Taylor, chief trader in Buffalo at Manufacturers & Traders Trust, which has $50 billion in assets. The break past $1.20 sparked euro buying and turned that level into ``support,'' he said.

Additional orders to buy the euro above the $1.2050 level may push the currency to $1.21 per euro today, Taylor said.

The world's largest economy needs to attract about $1.5 billion a day to prevent the dollar from dropping in value and fund the current-account deficit, which held at a record $138.7 billion in the second quarter.

``The broad dollar-negative themes are still out there,'' said Allison Montgomery, a currency strategist in Sydney at Westpac Banking Corp. ``For the dollar to rise, it needs more than good U.S. data, which has had little impact. There's just too much weighing on it.''

Last Updated: December 2, 2003 10:54 EST