SHANGHAI: China’s yuan was steady on Friday, as easing expectations offset the positive impact from a weaker dollar.
It changed hands at roughly 7.090 per dollar at midday, barely moving from the previous day’s close.
The Chinese currency has strengthened more than 2.6% since the end of July, as the greenback weakened amid growing bets on a US rate cut in September, prompting some Chinese companies to sell the dollar for yuan.
On Friday, the dollar nursed losses, with investors on tenterhooks ahead of US jobs data that could decide the size and speed of coming US rate cuts.
But traders hesitated to push up the yuan, after China’s central bank said on Thursday that policymakers still have room to lower the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves.
Also weighing on the yuan, China’s 30-year treasury yield hit a record low on Thursday amid talk of Chinese banks considering lowering interest rates on existing mortgages.
“We’ll closely monitor market reactions to the US job data,” said a trader who asked to be anonymous.
China’s yuan gains against dollar
Prior to the market opening, the People’s Bank of China set the midpoint rate at 7.0925 per dollar, the strongest in eight months.
The dollar’s six-currency index was 0.030% lower at 101.01.
In the forwards market, three-month yuan was quoted at 7.0223, 684 pips stronger than the spot rate.
Three-month CNH forwards were quoted at 7.0256 per dollar.
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