Early trade in New York: Dollar index hovers at 23-month peak

30 Apr, 2019

The dollar was marginally higher against a basket of currencies on Monday, hovering near a 23-month high, as traders await more data to convince them whether to add to their bullish positions in the greenback.
Most major currencies held in tight ranges on light trading volume as Japan began its extended Golden Week holiday. China will observe its Labour Day holiday from Wednesday to Friday.
A Federal Reserve policy meeting, Brexit negotiations and a raft of global data including US payrolls could each be the trigger for big currency swings this week.
"You have a lot of economic data later this week from around the world. People are waiting to see if there is a lot of major shifts," said Chuck Tomes, associate portfolio manager at Manulife Asset Management in Boston.
A swathe of manufacturing surveys from Europe and China are due later this week, along with a first reading on EU GDP. The US payrolls report on Friday is forecast to show a solid increase of 185,000 jobs in April, with unemployment at 3.8%.
At 10:36 a.m. (1436 GMT), an index that tracks the greenback against the euro, yen, sterling and three other currencies was up 0.04% at 98.05. Last week, it reached 98.330, the highest since May 2017.
The euro was 0.08% higher at $1.1157, while the dollar was up 0.31% at 111.85 yen.
The dollar index failed to move higher after data that showed US consumer spending gaining 0.9% in March, marking its biggest monthly increase in more than 9-1/2 years.

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