(New York) The dollar on Thursday largely gave up the ground it had gained the day before in a market without strong direction, in the absence of many traders during the holidays.
Around 4:40 p.m. (Eastern Time), the greenback fell 0.46% to 1.0661 dollars per euro.
“We continue to sail towards the end of the year and investors lack elements to cling to to give direction to the markets”, summarizes Craig Erlam, analyst at Oanda.
“Nothing salient determines the courses, the euro has strengthened a little, but without passing the threshold”, indicated for his part Brad Bechtel, specialist in the foreign exchange market for Jefferies.
He noted, however, the good performance of the yen at 133.01 yen for a dollar (+ 1.10%) while the Bank of Japan (BoJ) intervened, according to him, to support its control of the yields of Japanese government bonds at ten year.
Last week, the BoJ had increased the ceiling of these returns that it tolerates to 0.5%, against 0.25% previously.
One of the main topics of the week remains the lifting of restrictions on travel to China despite an outbreak of COVID-19 cases in its territory.
On Wednesday, the United States joined a growing number of countries imposing testing on travelers from China.
“The way Chinese leaders will react [à la recrudescence de la pandémie] is as difficult to interpret as the data itself,” said Craig Erlam.
A marked recovery from the pandemic could boost the appeal of the safe haven dollar.