Yahoo Finance Dollar Gains; Rouble, New Zealand Dollar Tumble
Investing.com - The dollar gained ground against a currency basket on Thursday, while Russia’s rouble tumbled on sanctions fears and the New Zealand dollar hit two year lows on a dovish sounding central bank statement.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.13% to 95.08 by 03:18 AM ET (07:18 AM GMT).
The dollar was little changed against the yen, with USD/JPY at 111.02 after falling as low as 110.71 overnight ahead of expected bilateral trade talks between the U.S. and Japan in Washington later in the day.
The euro slid against the dollar, with EUR/USD down 0.19% to 1.1588.
The single currency was also a shade lower against the yen, with EUR/JPY easing to 128.76.
The pound was struggling near one-year lows against the euro and the dollar, with GBP/USD at 1.2857 and EUR/GBP at 0.9011 amid growing fears over the prospect of Britain exiting the European Union without a trade deal in place.
The New Zealand dollar was sharply lower, with NZD/USD dropping 1.16% to 0.6656, its weakest level since mid-March 2016.
The drop in the kiwi came after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand said overnight that it expects to keep interest rates at a record low for another two years and opened the door to a rate cut if needed.
The Australian dollar was holding steady, with AUD/USD at 0.7424.
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar jumped to its highest level against Russia’s rouble in two years, with USD/RUB surging 1.68% to 66.6500. Russia’s currency was pressured lower by fears over the prospect of fresh U.S. sanctions.
China’s yuan slid against the dollar, with the currency, which is usually closely controlled by Beijing, at 6.8287 in offshore trading.
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