Dollar Heading For a Weekly Gain as Recovery Faltered by The Pandemic

The yen rose and the dollar is heading to achieve its best weekly performance this month today, Friday, as the rise in cases of Coronavirus and the stalled progress towards providing American stimulus caused investors’ appetite for safe assets.

In light of the application of new restrictions to combat the spread of Covid-19 in Europe and Britain, the global reserve currency rose to its highest level in two weeks at 93.910 against a basket of currencies. It settled just below that peak in the Asian session.

And the safe-haven yen rose again towards its highest level in two weeks, which it reached on Wednesday, and in the latest trading of 105.24 per dollar. The Australian dollar fell 0.3% and the rest of the major currencies incurred losses.

London has entered into strict general isolation measures to confront Covid-19 in the middle of the night, and with a curfew in Paris, this makes the two largest cities in Europe live under restrictions imposed by the state.

The risk-sensitive currencies were hit the hardest, and the Australian dollar, its New Zealand counterpart and the Norwegian krone led the weekly losses. The Norwegian krone has lost 2.5% this week, while the Australian dollar is down 2.3%.

The pound also witnessed a massive sell-off on Thursday due to concerns about obstacles preventing the European Union and Britain from reaching a post-Brexit trade agreement.

The British currency lost 1.1% this week and settled at $ 1.2893 today.

The euro stabilized in Asia today, but lost about 1% during the week. The US dollar also stabilized, and gained 0.8% against a basket of currencies this week, the biggest weekly gain since late September.