The dollar was on track for its biggest weekly decline in more than a decade on Friday, as trillions of dollars worth of stimulus efforts by governments and central banks helped temper a rout in global markets triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. The dollar had been riding high in March amid a drive for dollars by investors trying to get their hands on the world’s most liquid currency, and one considered a safe haven. But big government spending pledges, including a $2.2 trillion U.S. package, and co-ordinated efforts by central ...

The dollar dropped to a one-week low against a basket of currencies on Thursday after data showed an unprecedented surge in Americans filing for unemployment benefits, as businesses across the country shut down in an attempt to stem the spread of the coronavirus. The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits shot to record of more than 3 million last week. The jobless blowout was announced shortly after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that the U.S. economy “may well be in recession” but progress in controlling the spread ...

The dollar fell against the yen and the euro on Thursday, ahead of U.S. data that is expected to show a surge in unemployment benefit claims as firms lay off workers due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus. The pound extended declines against the euro and the dollar due to worries that Britain is ill-prepared for a spiralling number of coronavirus cases, as healthcare systems in Italy and Spain are already being overwhelmed. The Australian and New Zealand dollars, both of which are closely linked to the global commodity ...

Fallout from the coronavirus outbreak may finally lift the curse of the safe-haven yen for Japan but policymakers fear fiscal laxity could lead to a currency free-fall eventually, undermining efforts to cushion the economy from the pandemic. The yen, which investors typically snap up as a safe haven in times of financial market stress, fell nearly 10% against the dollar this month, as pandemic fears spurred a stampede into the refuge of the world’s most powerful currency. For Japanese policymakers who have repeatedly fought in recent decades to tamp down ...

The dollar slipped for a third consecutive session on Wednesday, as a deal to backstop the U.S. economy with a huge fiscal stimulus package promised to further ease some of the pandemic-driven skyrocketing demand for hard cash. U.S. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said the package, expected to be worth $2 trillion, had been agreed and would be put to a vote later on Wednesday. The risk-sensitive Australian dollar jumped over the 60-cent mark for the first time in a week as news of the agreement trickled out, and then ...

The soaring U.S. dollar is acting like a wrecking ball in financial markets and the global economy as investors and governments deal with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. If the greenback doesn’t stabilize soon, the Trump administration and others might need to take action, a Goldman Sachs analyst warned Monday. “If the dollar were to continue rising, we would see a reasonably strong case for coordinated and targeted intervention,” said strategist Zach Pandl in a Monday note. The dollar’s surge echoes a similar jump during the most acute ...

The dollar fell broadly on Tuesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve on Monday committed to buy an unlimited amount of bonds and as investors were optimistic the American government would pass a stimulus package to offset the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Against a basket of its rivals, the dollar fell 0.42% to 101.71. It is down from a more than three-year high of 102.99 on Friday. “The Fed’s measures are unprecedented, and they have  extremely proactive in preventing this external shock from morphing into a wider funding crisis,” ...

The dollar slipped for a second consecutive day on Tuesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve unveiled fresh measures to supply precious liquidity into funding markets, sending risky currencies such as the Australian dollar soaring. The Fed announced unlimited quantitative easing and programmes to support credit markets on Monday in a drastic bid to backstop an economy reeling from emergency restrictions on commerce to fight the coronavirus. Against a basket of its rivals , the dollar fell 0.5% to 101.52, down more than 1% from Monday’s highs and having hit a ...

The U.S. dollar fell back towards the day’s lows against its rivals on Monday after the Federal Reserve said it would begin backstopping a wider range of credit, a move that fuelled a rally in risky currencies including the Australian dollar. After already aggressively easing monetary policy this month, including sending interest rates to near zero, the U.S. central bank said it would now lend against student loans and credit card loans as well as buy bonds of larger employers. The move yanked commodity-focused currencies such as the Australian dollar ...

The dollar erased most of its early losses and rose towards a three-year high on Monday as a global selloff in stocks rippled over into early European trading, burnishing the safe-haven appeal of the greenback. A 9% rally in the value of the greenback against its major rivals over the past two weeks came to a brief halt on Friday after major central banks stepped up their dollar injection facilities to tide over a global scramble for funding. But Monday’s Asian market trading brought a fresh round of problems with ...

The dollar eased on Friday after a rally that put it on track for its biggest weekly rise since the 2008 financial crisis, as a global scramble for funding sent other currencies reeling. Currencies from the Australian dollar to the British pound tumbled to multi-year lows this week, after coordinated rate cuts by central banks and billions of dollars of fund injections failed to calm panicky markets. But Friday restored some calm after days of selling. The Australian dollar jumped 3.4%, although analysts warned that it was too early to ...

China’s central bank on Thursday set its official yuan midpoint at the lowest in nearly five months to reflect sharp gains in the greenback in global markets overnight. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) set the midpoint rate at 7.0522 per dollar prior to the market open, 194 pips, or 0.28%, weaker than the previous fix of 7.0328, and the weakest since Oct. 31, 2019. The dollar soared across the board, hitting multi-year highs against several major currencies, as companies and investors worried by the coronavirus outbreak rushed to the ...

From Brazil to Norway, policymakers are leaping to defend currencies against the onslaught of the dollar which scaled three-year peaks on Thursday, raising speculation that a joint move by the world’s biggest central banks may be in the offing. Unlikely, most market-watchers say. But these are unusual times, and Norway’s central bank earlier in the day threatened to intervene to lift the crown, a step it hasn’t taken in more than 20 years. The warning followed the crown’s 30% plunge versus the dollar in less than three weeks, though oil’s ...

The dollar extended its gains on Wednesday and hit new multi-year highs against both the Australian and New Zealand dollars, as companies and investors worried by the coronavirus outbreak rushed to the world’s most liquid currency. As major currencies wilted against the greenback, the Norwegian crown hit a new record low of $10.4564., signs of stress was everywhere as global central banks resumed their efforts to keep money markets functioning normally. The U.S. Federal Reserve said on Tuesday it would reinstate a funding facility used during the 2008 financial crisis ...

The dollar extended its gains on Wednesday and hit new multi-year highs against both the Australian and New Zealand dollars, as companies and investors worried by the coronavirus outbreak rushed to the world’s most liquid currency. As major currencies wilted against the greenback, the Norwegian crown hit a new record low of $10.4564., signs of stress was everywhere as global central banks resumed their efforts to keep money markets functioning normally. The U.S. Federal Reserve said on Tuesday it would reinstate a funding facility used during the 2008 financial crisis ...