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HONG KONG – The overnight uptrend put the euro and the pound in good stead in early Asia, helped by good job data from the United Kingdom and strong general retail sales in the United States and a general improvement in investor sentiment in the hope of easing the lockdown in China.
The European common currency reached 0 1.0563 in early trade in Asia, after gaining 1.1% overnight, the biggest percentage gain since March.
Sterling touched $ 1.2501 after a 1.4% overnight rally, its best day since the end of 2020, also helped by data showing that Britain’s unemployment rate has reached a 48-year low.
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These gains pushed the dollar index, which measures the greenback against the six peers, down to 103.18 in early Asia, the lowest in nearly two weeks.
“The pound has risen since yesterday’s extremely strong jobs report and on top of that there has been some positive news about the lockdown outside China and a slight improvement in the perception of broader risk in financial markets driven by strong data. The United States, “said Carol Kong, a currency strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Shanghai on Tuesday achieved the long-awaited milestone of three days in a row where there are no new COVID-19 cases outside the quarantine zone, yet it has set a clear schedule for the day before the lockdown.
U.S. retail sales rose sharply in April as consumers bought more motor vehicles amid improved supply and rising costs in restaurants.
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Also reflecting a sense of improved risk, the equity jumped overnight and the U.S. benchmark treasury yielded, and lastly was 2.9878%.
Overnight, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told a Wall Street Journal event on Tuesday that the Fed would “push” to tighten US monetary policy until it is clear inflation is slowing.
The dollar briefly lowered its value after Powell’s remarks, but it began to fall again.
The high yield has helped end the small recent recovery of the yen, as the Japanese currency is very sensitive to high rates in the United States. The yen was last at 129.28 per dollar, with little change in the day.
The Australian dollar was on the front foot, helped by improved risk sentiment and trading at 70 0.7035, boosting gains by 0.8% on Tuesday.
The Aussie was also helped by a central bank meeting on Tuesday, which indicated that the Reserve Bank of Australia would raise interest rates again in June.
The cryptocurrency market was fairly quiet. Bitcoin was just converted to about 30,400.
(Reporting by Alun John; Editing by Christopher Cushing)