By Peter Nurse
The dollar fell slightly in european trade on Thursday, investors are seemingly willing to step out of the safety zone for currencies more risky, in anticipation of key data on unemployment in the United States.
At 11: 30, the us dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, was $ 99,602, down 0.15%. EUR/USD fell 0.2% to 1,0937, while GBP/USD rose 0.4% to 1,2430. USD/JPY has risen 0.1% to 107,28.
The outbreak of the pandemic has caused the almost complete closure of the developed economies, the governments trying to implement policies for social distancing to stop the spread of the virus.
The most glaring evidence of the economic damage came last week when the requests weekly initial unemployment benefits in the United States, one of the first indicators of economic trends, rose to 3.28 million, exceeding the previous record of 695 000 established in 1982.
The figures of this week are published at 14: 30, and 3.5 million additional applications are expected.
He is obviously poorly, but there may be a positive trend, it may be that a large number of requests means that the displaced workers take advantage of the support provided by the stimulus bill. This would help to maintain the disposable income that the economy needs so much.
In addition, the price of oil has risen sharply on Thursday after president Donald Trump has said last Wednesday that Russia and saudi Arabia would reach an agreement to put an end to their price war, in the “few days”.
World oil prices have dropped by about two-thirds this year, hitting severely the finances of countries that depend on oil revenues for their funding.
At 11: 30, USD/NOK}
declined by 1.2% to 10,3057, while USD/RUB fell 0.6% to 78,2511. Russia has spent 5% of its reserves to defend the ruble in the week of 20 march. The data of the last week are expected for Thursday.
Some currencies of vulnerable emerging markets have been subjected to extreme pressure recently, because the large deficits of the current accounts, low credit ratings and foreign exchange reserves are limited and increase the risk of capital flight.
The rand of south africa reached a low record, while the lira Turkish has fallen to its lowest level in two years. The more positive tone on Thursday, has enabled these countries to display small times.
At 11: 30am, USD/ZAR rose from 0.2% to 18,2580 and USD/TRY was down 0.2% to 6,6822.
