NEW YORK: The safe-haven dollar rose on Wednesday, pushing the euro to one-week lows on prospects of a national lockdown in Germany and France as coronavirus cases surged, with implied volatility gauges in the common currency and the yen hitting multi-month highs as traders positioned for next Tuesday’s US election.
Germany and France were preparing to announce restrictions approaching the level of last spring’s blanket lockdowns on Wednesday as Covid-19 deaths across Europe rose almost 40% in a week, while financial markets tumbled on fears of the likely economic costs.
In midmorning trading, the euro was down 0.5% against the dollar at $1.1736, after sliding to a one-week low.
The dollar though slipped 0.1% against the yen to 104.33 yen. Earlier, the greenback dropped to a more than one-month low.
The euro also fell 0.6% against yen to 122.44 yen, after earlier sinking to its weakest since July.
One-week implied volatility gauges in euro and yen rose to their highest in nearly seven months.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six currencies, was up 0.3% at 93.45.
Elsewhere, the British pound fell 0.7% versus the dollar to $1.2958.—Reuters
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