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Forex - U.S. Dollar Falls as COVID-19 Numbers Continue to Rise

Investing.com
·2-min read

By Gina Lee

Investing.com - The U.S. dollar was down on Monday in Asia as stock markets saw sharp losses in the face of an uptick of COVID-19 cases over the weekend.

The U.S. dollar index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies slipped 0.62% to 102.857 by 1:48AM ET (05:48 GMT), continuing Friday’s drop.

Despite its fall, Yukio Ishizuki, FX strategist at Daiwa Securities, noted that the dollar will continue to be safe haven for investors in the midst of continuing economic turmoil.

“We’ve moved from risk off to a phase where major players are competing with each other for the safety of holding dollars in cash,” Ishizuki, FX strategist at Daiwa Securities, told CNBC.

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“There are still a lot of investors who need to sell riskier assets, and they want to hold their money in dollars,” he added.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said that Congress is close to finalising a stimulus package of up to $4 trillion on Sunday, including a direct cash payment of $3,000 to families.

The Federal Reserve also expanded its currency swap lines to a further nine countries on Thursday.

The AUD/USD pair lost 0.44% to 0.5773 as the ASX 200 entered bear territory. Lawmakers met for a special sitting in the morning to pass an additional A$6 billion ($3.45 billion) package to avert recession and save jobs.

The NZD/USD pair was down by 0.82% to 0.5660 as the dollar reaches a near-11 year high against the Kiwi counterpart. The country is racing towards a shutdown beginning tomorrow to combat the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

The USD/JPY pair was down 0.78% to 109.94, weakening from levels below 108 seen last week, as Japan returned from a national holiday on Friday.

Meanwhile, the GBP/USD pair jumped almost 2% late last week following the news that the U.K proposed emergency legislation to contain the pandemic on Friday. The pair last traded at 1.1692 today, up 0.44%.

The USD/CNY pair flattened to a 0.01% gain of 7.0960.

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