NEW YORK: The dollar slipped on Monday against its major peers, dropping to a two-week low versus the yen, as positive news about a Covid-19 vaccine and a wave of merger and acquisition deals lifted the mood in global equity markets.
Investors also looked ahead to an event-packed week which includes a Federal Reserve meeting and the appointment of a new Japanese premier.
US stocks rose on Monday on signs of progress in developing a Covid-19 vaccine and a flurry of multibillion-dollar deals, including reports of Oracle winning the battle for the US arm of TikTok.
"As equities trade more positively at the start of the new week, the dollar is trading weaker again. The market is still showing that it is likely to fade any dollar strength," said Vassili Serebriakov, FX strategist at UBS in New York.
Global equities got a lift after drugmaker AstraZeneca resumed its British clinical trials of its Covid-19 vaccine, one of the most advanced in development.
In morning trading, the dollar index fell 0.4% to 92.919, after posting two straight weeks of gains.
Speculators trimmed net short dollar positions for the second straight week to $32.67 billion, according to Reuters calculations and Commodity Futures Trading Commission data. That's off nine-year highs of $33.68 billion in late August.
The dollar fell 0.5% against the yen to 105.66 yen, after earlier sliding to a two-week low.
The euro was up 0.3% versus the dollar at $1.1880.
The single currency had spiked to a one-week high above $1.191 after Thursday's European Central Bank meeting, before easing back as policymakers talked it down the next day.
Comments
Comments are closed.