Dollar Slumps To New Record Low Against Franc On Equities Rally
The US dollar edged lower against its major rivals in early Asian trading on Thursday as a rally in Asian equities on the back of upbeat earnings reports prompted traders to reduce holdings of lower-yielding greenback to bet on riskier currencies.
Asian stock markets are trading higher today with investors picking up stocks, tracking overnight cues from Wall Street where the mood was upbeat on the back of some encouraging earnings reports.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index was up 0.57 percent, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.8 percent, South Korea’s Kospi Composite gained 0.87 percent and New Zealand’s NZX-50 rose 0.4 percent.
Apple reported that its fiscal second-quarter profit jumped 95 percent on-year on record iPhone sales, strong sales of its iPad tablet computers and Macintosh computers. The well-above forecast earnings helped Apple’s shares moving up 3.1 percent in after-hours trade.
The encouraging results came a day after technology giants Yahoo, IBM and Intel warmed the Street with forecast-beating results, offsetting this week’s S&P rating jitters and fresh eurozone debt concerns.
Extending its previous session’s slide, the US dollar reached a fresh record low of 0.8854 against the Swiss franc on Thursday morning in Asia. The greenback-franc pair that was worth 0.8883 at Wednesday’s North American session close is currently quoted at 0.8870.
Extending its 2-day losing streak, the US dollar touched 1.4582 against the euro in early Asian deals Thursday and this set the lowest level for the dollar since mid-December, 2009. On the downside, 1.46 is seen as the next likely target level for the greenback. The euro-buck pair that was worth 1.4524 at Wednesday’s close is currently quoted at 1.4570.
The US dollar broke past the key 1.6430 support level against the pound to reach as low as 1.6444 in early Asian trading on Thursday. This set the weakest level for the greenback since January 19, 2010 and more than 30 pips lower than Wednesday’s North American session close of 1.6411. On the downside, 1.6470 is seen as the next likely target level for the US currency.
Against the yen, the US dollar fell to a 3-day low of 82.23 on Thursday morning in Asia, compared to 82.57 hit late New York Wednesday. The greenback-yen pair is presently worth 82.30 with 82.0 seen as the next likely downside target level.
Looking ahead, Japan is set to release its final numbers of leading and coincident indexes for February at 1:00 am ET.
German IFO business climate index for April and the U.K. retail sales for March are expected in the European session.
Across the Atlantic, the U.S. weekly jobless claims for the week ended April 16, house price index for February and the leading indicators for March are due out in the North American session.
