The US Dollar quite eased itself into thin trade– where it was looking straight at weekly losses with investors looking for assets of a non-dollar kind. This was all due to them trying to improve the risk appetite that stemmed from good news- in light of a smoother Biden administration, and the COVID-19 vaccines. Rikiya Takebe of the Okasan Online Securities mentioned that the Feds were determined to make sure that the interest rates were low. Further, this did lead to dollar-selling- something that other central banks were privy towards.
How far did the US Dollar Fall?
This was one of the main plans, as the other involved traders noting down the selling point of US dollars at the end of the month. Despite this, markets were mostly subdued on the eve of the Thanksgiving Holidays. The index of the US Dollar fell to 91.92- a percentage fall of 0.12% in comparison to major currencies. The index has earlier slipped to almost 91.84- a three-month low. Currently, the US Dollar has lost close to 0.52% against the basket.
Shinichiro Kadota of Barclays has spoken about how the US Dollar would be under pressure for quite some time now. He believes that this is a direct result of the prolonged sentiment of ‘risk-on’ brought forth by vaccine hopes. Nonetheless, he thinks that the dollar might just meet these expectations somewhere in the medium term. He opines that of all the countries that have been rebuilding their economies, the USA seems to be the most resilient of the lot. So, if there were a scenario where the vaccine would be available sometime next year, the US might just present an extremely US Dollar-favorable environment.
How Has the European Currency Market Fared Against the US Dollar?
AstraZeneca, the British drugmaker, has been interrogated on its vaccine efficacy- something that might hinder the approval that this company needs. But according to most analysts, the news hasn’t had as big an impact as they had feared on the market. Interestingly, the European Central Bank had a meeting last month, where the Minutes supported yet another policy stimulus in December. Along with the Minutes, Philip Lane, the chief economist of the ECB warned that the very tolerance of lower inflation over a long period of time might simply harm consumption. It might also hurt investment- whilst cementing expectations of a lower price increase for the future.
The Euro settled at a range of $1.1923 in comparison to the US Dollar, which was quite less than the Thursday mark of $1.1941 that was its two-month high. The Pound Sterling went even higher at $1.3368- touching a three-month high overnight with participants looking towards development on the Brexit talks.
