NEW YORK: The euro ticked higher against the dollar and yen Monday after a long Christmas weekend that saw the London market still on holiday.
But China's yuan added to its three-week slide against the US currency, after data showed industrial profits declining last month, another sign of weakness in the huge economy.
The greenback has been in a holding pattern at $1.0970 per euro for nearly two weeks after the Federal Reserve announced its December 16 rate increase -- the first in more than nine years.
Since then, there has been little economic data to move the two currencies, while analysts remain split over how fast the Fed will raise rates in 2016.
The yuan resumed its fall that began on December 7, dropping to 6.488 per dollar from 6.465 over the weekend.
Renee Mu of DailyFX said that, based on recent central bank statements, that trend is likely to continue.
"We already know that the yuan rate has been de-pegged to the dollar and set to refer to a basket of currencies," she said in a client note.
"Continued reforms in the yuan means that it will follow the same direction, which leaves room for yuan's further devaluation against the dollar," she said.
"At the same time, the central bank made it clear that yuan's rate will be 'relatively stable', meaning the devaluation is more likely to be step by step, rather than a freefall."
2200 GMT Monday Thursday
EUR/USD 1.0970 1.0964
EUR/JPY 132.05 131.87
EUR/CHF 1.0841 1.0818
EUR/GBP 0.7373 0.7344
USD/JPY 120.38 120.28
USD/CHF 0.9882 0.9867
GBP/USD 1.4879 1.4930
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.