LONDON: The U.S. dollar was down on Wednesday morning in Asia after increasing optimism over a global economic recovery from COVID-19 increased investor risk appetite.
Investors focused on countries continuing to loosen lockdown measures and restarting their economies, despite the ever-growing number of COVID-19 cases and no cure.
There are almost 6.4 million global cases of the virus as of June 3, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. Dollar Index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies fell 0.24% to 97.427 by 11:49 PM ET (4:49 AM GMT) as investors retreated from the safe-haven asset.
“The U.S. dollar is generally weak… The economy recovery story is the main factor.” Yukio Ishizuki, FX strategist at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo, told Reuters.
The USD/JPY pair was down 0.05% to 108.61. The yen is also considered a safe-haven asset.
The USD/CNY pair rose 0.16% to 7.1107. China’s Caixin/Markit services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) reading for May was 55, indicating a return to growth for the country’s services sector for the first time since January.
The AUD/USD pair gained 0.66% to 0.6939 even after the Bureau of Statistics said that Australia’s GDP fell 0.3% during the first quarter of 2020.
Daiwa Securities’ Ishizuki remained optimistic about the AUD, saying that “The Australian dollar has a lot of room to run because there are still a lot of shorts that need to be covered.”
The NZD/USD pair rose 0.71% to 0.6413 and the GBP/USD pair gained 0.31% to 1.2588.
Dollar retreats over increased hopes of global economic recovery
