Dollar falls for 5th day as vaccine hopes outweigh spike in Covid cases
The dollar slipped for a fifth straight session on Wednesday, sliding to a more than one-week low, as positive vaccine news offset the surge in coronavirus cases and tighter economic restrictions across the United States and Europe.
The market showed a little more appetite for risk-taking, with gains in currencies that rise in times of improving sentiment such as sterling, the New Zealand dollar, and Norwegian crown.
Pfizer announced that the final results from the late-stage trial of its COVID-19 vaccine showed it was 95% effective, giving relief to a pandemic-weary market . That followed news that Moderna Inc released preliminary data for its vaccine, showing 94.5% effectiveness.
In mid-morning trading, the dollar index slipped 0.1% to 92.298, after dropping as low as 92.207, its lowest level since Nov. 9.
The euro was slightly up on the day at $1.1869 rising, despite Poland and Hungary blocking the European Union’s 1.8 trillion-euro ($2.14 trillion) financial package to revive an economy depressed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sterling, meanwhile, rose 0.3% versus the dollar to $1.3297 in the wake of a report from the Sun newspaper that Prime Minister Boris Johnson was told by British negotiators to expect a Brussels trade deal early next week, with “a possible landing zone” as soon as next Tuesday.
The dollar though fell 0.3% against the yen to 103.865 , with the Japanese currency recouping much of the losses it suffered last week after Pfizer announced it had developed a working COVID-19 vaccine.
China’s offshore yuan surged to its highest in more than two years against the dollar on Wednesday.
The greenback though recovered to trade 0.2% higher at 6.5619 amid dollar-buying by major state-owned banks in what some traders suspected was an effort to slow the Chinese currency’s advance towards 6.5-per dollar.
Bitcoin shoots past $18,000 for the first time since December 2017
Bitcoin just climbed past $18,000 for the first time since December 2017, extending a wild run for the cryptocurrency this year.
The price of bitcoin was trading about 8.6% higher Wednesday morning at $18,172, breaching a level it hasn’t hit since Dec. 20, 2017, according to data from industry site CoinDesk.
Bitcoin has been on a tear in 2020, skyrocketing over 150% in a jump crypto enthusiasts have accredited to unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimulus in response to the Covid-19 crisis, as well as interest from big-name investors such as Paul Tudor Jones and Stanley Druckenmiller.
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