TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsDollar eases after jump, but risk sentiment remains fragile
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Illustration photo of Japanese Yen and US Dollar notes. (Reuters/Thomas White)
S
afe-haven currencies, including the dollar, eased on Thursday, pausing for breath after big gains the previous session as Wall Street stocks tumbled amid mounting concerns that aggressive tightening by the Federal Reserve and other central banks could choke growth.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six major peers, edged 0.05 percent lower to 103.74, after a 0.55 percent jump overnight that ended a three-day losing streak.
The yen slipped, with the dollar adding 0.21 percent to 128.495 yen after a 0.86 percent tumble on Wednesday.
The Swiss franc continued to strengthen, with the dollar losing a further 0.13 percent to 0.9869 franc, following a 0.6 percent slide.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield was steady around 2.89 percent in Tokyo trading after dropping from as high as 3.015 percent in the prior session.
Despite the pause in the safe haven rally, sentiment remained fragile with Asian stocks sliding and US futures pointing lower, a day after a 4 percent drop for the S&P 500 and a 5 percent plunge for the Nasdaq.
Poor US housing data on Wednesday added to slowdown concerns, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell had ratcheted up the hawkish rhetoric the previous day by saying the US monetary authority would push interest rates as high as needed to stem a surge in inflation that he said threatened the foundation of the economy.
Powell's stance "makes it hard to achieve a 'soft landing' for the US economy given the long lags between changes in monetary policy and changes in inflation," Joseph Capurso, a currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney, wrote in a client note.
The euro recovered some ground, adding 0.25 percent to $1.0489 after Wednesday's 0.84 percent slump.
The Aussie rose 0.14 percent to $0.6965 – shaking off a smaller-than-forecast increase in jobs for last month – but the currency had slumped 1.05 percent on Wednesday.
Sterling remained under pressure, trading little changed at $1.2343 after dropping 1.2 percent overnight as a surge in UK inflation to a 40-year record fostered worries for a sharp economic slowdown.
