NEW YORK: The US dollar fell against a basket of currencies for a second straight day on Tuesday as easing worries about a banking crisis revived investors’ appetite for riskier currencies.
Investors took solace from First Citizens BancShares’ agreement to buy all of failed lender Silicon Valley Bank’s deposits and loans, and the fact that no further cracks have emerged in global banking in recent sessions.
The dollar index, which measures the currency against six rivals, was 0.18% lower on the day at 102.57, inching closer to the near seven-week low of 101.91 touched on Thursday.
The Australian dollar, seen as a liquid proxy for risk appetite, was 0.39% higher at $0.6677, getting a lift from better-than-expected retail sales data.
The dollar fell as low as 130.415 yen, and was last off 0.54% as the Japanese currency rose. That undid most of the dollar’s 0.64% jump against the yen in the previous session, which tracked a large rise in US government bond yields.
Sterling was up 0.17% on the day, hovering around a two-month high as the Bank of England said Britain was not experiencing stress linked to the demise of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin fell 0.86% to $26,908 after a 3% slide the previous day, amid problems at the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance.
The company and its founder have been sued by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The exchange also suffered a technical glitch on Monday that forced it to temporarily suspend some operations.
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