On October 26, Monday, the U.S. dollar increased as boosting Covid-19 cases in Europe and the U.S. and a lack of progress on a United States stimulus package made traders cautious.
Nancy Pelosi, the United States House speaker’s reported on Sunday, October 25 that she awaited a White House answer on Monday to the latest stimulus plan, but there is little sign a deal is close.
Moreover, the United States has recorded its record high number of coronavirus cases during two consecutive days. France also faced similar difficulties. Spain reported a new state of emergence, and Italy has ordered restaurants and bars to close by 6 P.M.
According to media reports, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has confirmed successful in older people. Elsewhere, the staff at a major British hospital were assigned to prepare for a vaccine as early as next month failed to sustain sentiment.
Chief global market strategist at broker Axi, Stephen Innes reported that optimism over a vaccine prevented markets falling on Monday.
Remarkably, an index tracking the greenback against a basket of currencies increased by 0.2% in the last session and settled at 92.95. Moreover, the most traded currency pair and part of the index, Euro/dollar fell by 0.3% and touched 1.1831.
The U.S. dollar also gained 0.1% against the Japanese yen and settled at 104.87.
Norwegian crown and Australian dollar were among the worst performers
The worst performers among leading currencies were Norwegian crown and Australian dollar. Thus, they faced strong returns as traders took on more risk last week.
The Australian dollar dipped 0.3% in the last session and touched 0.7118. The Norwegian crown decreased by 0.9% at 9.3015 versus the greenback. While against the euro it dropped by 0.7% and touched 11.0050. Remarkably, in the previous session, it sharply declined and hit a three-week low of 11.0190.
Another vital thing to mention is that Norway is also due to announce more stringent measures this week in order to limit the spread of Covid-19 following gains in the number of cases.
Traders will be waiting for the German Ifo business review at 0800 GMT. According to economists, current conditions are expected to have improved.
Moreover, the British pound lost ground in early trading, dipping 0.3% to $1.2995 but was steady against the euro at 91 pence.
Elsewhere, the Chinese yuan dropped by 0.4% versus the U.S. dollar. Moreover, it settled at 6.6907 in the offshore market a Chinese government started discussions on the following five-year plan.
