On Monday, the U.S. dollar saw a declined from 10-day highs. Investors looked past concerns about a fast-spreading new COVID-19 strain widespread in the United Kingdom. They focused on the Congress vote on the U.S. stimulus package.
Besides, the World Health Organisation also supported market sentiment. They tried to ease concerns about the latest virus modification.
On Monday, the World Health Organisation announced that COVID-19 mutations had been much slower than with influenza. Even the new British variant remained much less spreading than other illnesses. WHO also added that vaccines developed to fight coronavirus should cope with the latest variants.
According to the executive director at currency advisory firm Klarity FX in San Francisco, level heads have prevailed. People understood that the variant will still be affected by the currently developing vaccines. He said that if it has been the case that the vaccines are not effective against this variant, then it is an entirely different situation.
Investors have started to concentrate more on the U.S. stimulus bill expected to get voted on later on Monday.
On December 21, the dollar climbed to a 10-day peak of 91.022
Significantly, in afternoon trading, the dollar index dropped by 0.2% and settled at 90.097. Besides, last week, the safe-haven dollar declined to two and a half year lows. It had optimism in hopes that vaccines would help recover global growth. Earlier on December 21, it climbed to a 10-day peak of 91.022.
Additionally, the euro declined by 0.2%. It settled at $1.22331 after earlier falling to a more than the one-week trough.
The British pound declined to a 10-day low against the greenback and euro, as two-year British government bonds fell to a record low.
The sterling cut losses against the U.S. dollar and traded 0.4% lower at $1.3448. Meanwhile, the euro little changed versus the pound and rose by 0.1% at 90.85 pence.
Furthermore, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, declined by 2.7% after reaching a record high of $24,298.04 on December 20. Currently, Bitcoin prices were at $22,844.18.
Additionally, total investor inflows into cryptocurrency funds and products reached $5.6 billion this year, up over 600% from 2019.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars declined at the beginning of the week as investors rushed for haven assets. The Australian dollar fell by 0.6% and settled at 75.80 U.S. cents. Meanwhile, the New Zealand dollar dropped by 0.6% and touched 71 U.S. cents. Moreover, the U.S. dollar stood at 103.34 yen against the yen.