Cryptocurrencies bounce back from China crackdown
Cryptocurrencies traded firmly on Monday, having rebounded from selling driven by an intensifying crackdown on the asset class in China, as buy-the-dip speculators swooped in.
Bitcoin was up about 1% in Asia trade at $43,719, having fallen to just below $41,000 in the wake of Friday’s announcement of a blanket ban on crypto mining and transactions in China - the most wide-ranging clampdown yet.
Rival token ether rose 2% to $3,136 and has recouped its Friday losses.
Dollar wallows near one-week low as haven demand ebbs
The dollar wallowed near its lowest level in a week versus major peers on Friday, as improved risk sentiment wiped out recent gains amid easing concerns about contagion from a potential China Evergrande Group default.
Risk appetite returned, lifting oil and global equities, even as hawkish comments from the Bank of England pushed up yields globally, with those on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes hitting the highest since July overnight at 1.437%.
That failed to help the greenback though, with the U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the currency against a basket of six rivals, easing slightly to 93.068 from Thursday, when it slid 0.36% and touched the lowest since Sept. 17 at 92.977. That erased gains for the week, and set the index up for a 0.16% decline.
The yen eased 0.05% to 110.385 per dollar after earlier hitting 110.435, its weakest level since Sept. 8.
The euro added 0.05% to $1.1743, continuing to rebound from a more than one-month low of $1.16835 reached Thursday.
The Aussie rose 0.21% to $0.73105, and earlier touched a one-week high of $0.73165.
Meanwhile, sterling was 0.07% higher at $1.3734, approaching the previous session’s high of $1.3750, a first since Sept. 20.
The BOE said two of its policymakers had voted for an early end to pandemic-era government bond buying and markets brought forward their expectations for an interest rate rise to March.
Reference: CNBC, Reuters
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