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Dollar Up, but Moves Small as Investors Continue to Seek Riskier Assets

Published 12/30/2021, 11:52 AM
Updated 12/30/2021, 11:52 AM
© Reuters.

© Reuters.

By Gina Lee

Investing.com – The dollar was up on Thursday morning in Asia, but traded near the low end of its recent range along with the Japanese yen. However, moves remained small due to holiday-thinned trading and as fears over the omicron COVID-19 variant continued to subside.

The U.S. Dollar Index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies inched up 0.01% to 95.935 by 10:43 PM ET (3:43 AM GMT). The U.S. currency was supported by rising U.S. Treasury yields, with benchmark 10-year yields hitting 1.56% on Wednesday, the highest since Nov. 20, 2021.

The USD/JPY pair inched up 0.08% to 115.03 after falling to a one-month low of 115.03 on Wednesday.

The AUD/USD pair edged up 0.19% to 0.7261 and the NZD/USD pair was up 0.22% to 0.6845.

The USD/CNY pair inched up 0.02% to 6.3692 and the GBP/USD pair inched up 0.04% to 1.3491.

Investors' risk appetite improved as many governments refrained from re-imposing lockdowns, despite soaring numbers of COVID-19 cases globally as omicron continues to spread. The number of global cases exceeded 284 million as of Dec. 30, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

“The dollar resumed its retreat overnight as markets continue to price in finishing omicron fears thanks to low hospitalizations,” Oanda senior market analyst for Asia Pacific Jeffrey Halley told Reuters.

“That has encouraged investors out of defensive positioning and back into the global recovery trade.”

However, other investors warned against reading too much into the moves as trades remained thin heading into the end of 2021.

“In times like these we trade very technically as short-term jobbers try to eek out some final year-end gains,” Brad Bechtel, global head of FX at Jefferies, said in a note.

In emerging markets, the Turkish lira was at 12.6 per dollar after tumbling 6.9% on Wednesday. The lira has lost 40% of its value in 2021 to date, it surged more than 50% last week thanks to state-backed market interventions.

Turkish Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati said on Wednesday that the current swings in the lira were not worrying and that it would return to normal levels.

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin was around $46,200, falling for a third consecutive session.

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