In Asia on Thursday morning, the dollar was going up. It hit a three-week high against the yen. However, the U.S. dollar held steady and was helped by rising U.S. Treasury yields, which hit their highest levels in two weeks overnight.
At 4:57 AM GMT, the U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the dollar’s value against other currencies, went up by 0.04% to 102.34.
The USD/JPY pair dropped 0.06% to 130.04.
The AUD/USD pair fell by 0.15% to 0.7164, and the NZD/USD pair fell by 0.04% to 0.6480.
The value of the USD/CNY pair went up by 0.19๔to 6.6989, and the value of the GBP/USD pair went up by 0.04% to 1.2487.
The dollar reached a high of 130.23 yen, its highest level since May 11 and an extension of Wednesday’s 1.1% rise. It was also returning to the 20-year high of 131.34 that the dollar reached in May.
The euro was traded at $1.0654 after falling 0.81% to a 10-day low overnight.
“If you look at the equity market, at bonds, at dollars, it all sort of joins up.”
“In the last 48 hours or so we’ve seen a reversal in declines in U.S. Treasury yields, the 10 year is now back near 3%, equity markets have been struggling and the U.S. dollar strengthening. It’s almost a mirror image of what we saw last week, when there was talk of a possible pause in the tightening cycle.”
“Also I think the euro has pretty much done what it can do on the upside ahead of the ECB meeting next week, because a lot is priced in now.”
Ray Attrill, Head Of Foreign Exchange Strategy at National Australia Bank (OTC:NABZY), told Reuters.
The U.S. benchmark 10-year yield hit a two-week high of 2.951% on Wednesday. Data showed that U.S. manufacturing activity peaked in May 2022 because demand for goods remained strong. The purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for manufacturing was 57, and the ISM manufacturing PMI was 56.1.
The Institute of Supply Management’s (ISM) manufacturing employment index stayed at 49.6, and the JOLTs jobs opening index stayed at 11.4 million. So, U.S. job openings also remained at high levels.
Yields have been going up because the U.S. Federal Reserve has quickly raised interest rates to stop inflation and avoid a recession.
Early in Asia, the yield on a 10-year bond was slightly lower, at 2.915%.
Investors are also waiting for Friday’s U.S. jobs report, including non-farm payrolls. In addition, the European Central Bank will have its policy meeting the following week. The bank will likely give more information about its plans to raise interest rates at that meeting.
In Asia-Pacific, the Australian dollar did not change much. Bitcoin was trading at around $29,800 after falling overnight. It had climbed above the $30,000 mark earlier in the week, but it couldn’t keep going up.
Source: Investing
Read more: Forex