By Gina Lee
Investing.com – The dollar was down on Friday morning in Asia, staying near milestone lows and set to record a weekly loss. Investors’ risk appetite increased as concerns about the U.S. Federal Reserve's hint of tapering eased, and economic recovery from COVID-19 gave other currencies a boost against the greenback.
The U.S. Dollar Index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies inched down 0.08% to 89.725 by 13:05 PM ET (5:05 AM GMT), falling below the 90-mark.
The USD/JPY pair inched up 0.02% to 108.78 as April’s data released earlier in the day showed the national core consumer price index (CPI) contracted 0.1% year-on-year, better than the 0.2% contraction in forecasts prepared by investing.com, while its national CPI contracted 0.4% month-on-month, which was larger than March’s 0.2% growth.
The AUD/USD pair edged down 0.19% to 0.7760 as Australia released its April’s retail sales data earlier in the day. Across the Tasman Sea, the NZD/USD pair edged down 0.20% to 0.7188.
The USD/CNY pair inched down 0.01 to 6.4334.
The GBP/USD pair inched down 0.03% to 1.4185 as investors await U.K. retail sales data for April due later in the day. The U.K. will also release its composite, manufacturing and services purchasing managers’ indexes for May.
In the U.S., data released on Thursday showed that the initial jobless claims fell to 444,000 over the past week, below 450,000 claims in forecasts prepared by Investing.com and 478,000 reading filed during the previous week.
Investors also seem less concerned about the Fed’s minutes from its latest meeting, released on Wednesday, which hinted at a scale-back of asset purchases.
"It has been just over 24 hours since markets got spooked by the prospect of the U.S. Fed tapering its asset purchases, but having proverbially slept on it, the mood seems less sour today," ANZ analysts said in a note.
"Which seems reasonable, it's not like the Fed is on the brink of wanting to actually act,” the noted added.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield slide to 1.6340% overnight, trading between roughly 1.5% and 1.7% for two months.
"The world was, is and will remain awash with cheap dollars," Societe Generale (OTC:SCGLY) strategist Kit Juckes told Reuters.
"As long as the Fed is talking about talking about tapering, Treasuries are likely to remain stuck in their range and the dollar's path of least resistance is to go on falling, albeit slowly."