Early trade in New York: Dollar index turns up for first time this week

NEW YORK: The dollar turned up against major currencies for the first time this week as US yields held steady and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand surprised markets by hinting at a future interest rate hike.

The dollar index was up 0.2% on Wednesday morning in New York, but at 89.83 was still near January lows after a steady slide from the end of March.

Benchmark yields on 10-year US Treasuries were steady within the range of the day before and recently at 1.55%.

The foreign exchange markets are wary of taking trends too far right now because key US economic data is coming out on Thursday and Friday, said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions.

The dollar’s rise came at the expense of the euro and the Canadian dollar. The euro lost 0.2% to the dollar as eurozone yields fell on new dovish signals from the European Central Bank. At $1.222 the euro is still up sharply from March and back to mid-January levels.

The US dollar appreciated to 1.21 Canadian dollars from 1.206 on Tuesday.

China’s onshore and offshore yuan strengthened to three-year highs versus the dollar. The onshore currency broke through 6.40 - a key psychological level - to trade at 6.39.

Cryptocurrencies bitcoin and ether were up about 2% and steady after a volatile weekend.