The U.S. dollar declined on Monday morning in Asia. The U.S. currency opened a busy week ahead, including the latest U.S. jobs report as well as the Reserve Bank of Australia’s policy decision, just above a one-month low.
The dollar index that tracks the U.S. currency against a basket of other currencies declined 0.12% to 92.078 by 12:31 AM ET. The dollar index was almost unchanged from Friday when the index dipped as low as 91.775 for the first time since June 28.
The dollar fell 0.88% during the previous week, its worst performance since early May. The U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated his position. Powell stated that interest rate hikes were “a ways away” and he also talked about the labor market. According to Powell, the state of the labor market is not ideal. So, it is too early to change its monetary policy.
The Federal Reserve’s policy decision handed down the month before, in June helped to boost the dollar. As a result, the greenback reached its highest level since April 2021. Investors are now turning their attention to another important factor the U.S. jobs report. The latest jobs report including non-farm payrolls and unemployment will be released in several days on Friday.
Dollar, yen, and pound on Monday
The AUD/USD pair declined 0.01% to 0.7344. The Reserve Bank of Australia will announce its policy decision on August 3. The central bank is expected to reverse its previous decision to begin asset tapering due to the pandemic. Authorities are struggling to deal with the highly contiguous Delta variant. Officials in Brisbane made the decision to extend the lockdown for several days.
The NZD/USD pair dropped 0.09% to 0.6967.
The USD/CNY pair gained 0.5% to 6.4644. The country’s Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) was lower than expected in July. The manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs for the same month were 50.4 and 53.3 respectively.
The USD/JPY pair was stable at 109.59.
The GBP/USD pair added 0.01% to 1.3902 ahead of the Bank of England’s policy decision.
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