Woman holds US dollar banknotes in front of euro banknotes in this illustration May 30, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
SINGAPORE/HONG KONG, June 30 (Reuters) – The euro struggled to regain its footing on Thursday after falling overnight against a resurgent US dollar buoyed by safe-haven demand amid renewed concerns over higher interest rates and a global recession benefited.
The euro traded at $1.044 after shedding 0.75% against the dollar the previous day and heading for a monthly decline of 2.7%.
It also fell to a fresh 7-1/2-year low of 0.99663 francs against the Swiss franc, with the Alpine currency another beneficiary of safe-haven flows and still recovering in the afterglow of the Swiss National Bank’s surprise rate cut two years ago weeks before sun. Continue reading
Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Christopher Wong, senior foreign exchange strategist at Maybank, attributed the euro’s decline against the dollar to the market’s move away from riskier assets after “central bankers warned of persistent inflation and that they would prioritize fighting it, leading to a broad overnight inflation.” recovery of the dollar”.
A steady and aggressive global shift towards more restrictive policies has fueled recession concerns and rattled financial markets in recent months.
Speaking at the European Central Bank’s annual conference in Sintra, Portugal, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said it was important to bring inflation down, even if it brought economic pain, with similar remarks from ECB President Christine Lagarde . Continue reading
Lower German inflation numbers also briefly weighed on the euro, said Ray Attrill, head of FX strategy at National Australia Bank, before “the market realized there were some special factors, it wasn’t a real surprise on the downside.”
“The big concern is what will happen to the energy supply in the eurozone as we head into winter… We’re quite cautious on the euro,” Attrill added.
The dollar was also up against other majors, with sterling dipping at $1.21225, with losses this week pointing to a 3.8% monthly decline while the Australian dollar struggled at $0.6873 .
The dollar also hit a fresh 24-year high of 137 yen overnight as the divide between a hawkish Fed and a dovish Bank of Japan continues to weigh heavily on the yen, which last traded at 136.57 yen.
The BOJ is able to keep interest rates low as Japanese inflation is still low by global standards, although even small price hikes create a messaging problem for the central bank. Continue reading
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six peers, was at 105.19, a two-week high.
Bitcoin fell back below the symbolic $20,000 mark on continued market volatility and was also hit by the US Stock Exchange, which rejected a proposal to list a bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund from Grayscale, one of the world’s largest digital wealth managers. Continue reading
Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Reporting by Alun John Edited by Shri Navaratnam
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Comments are closed.