Investing.com - The dollar rose to the day’s highs against a currency basket on Thursday, while the Turkish lira and the Argentinian peso skidded as a selloff in emerging market currencies gathered pace.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a basket of six major currencies, hit an intra-day high of 94.74 by 10:36 AM ET (14:36 GMT), up 0.3% for the day.
The dollar was boosted by safe haven demand amid renewed worries over emerging market currencies.
The Turkish lira fell around 4.5% against the dollar, bringing its weekly losses so far to 11% amid ongoing concerns over the country’s economic and financial market crisis.
USD/TRY hit an intra-day high of 6.8396, a new high for the week as it re-approached the record high of 7.2393 set on August 13.
The sell-off was fueled by a Reuters report that the deputy governor of Turkey’s central bank, Erkan Kilimci, is preparing to resign from his post.
Argentina's peso slumped to record lows against the dollar as the country’s central bank hiked interest rates to 60% and sought the early release of standby funds from the International Monetary Fund.
Other emerging-market currencies were also under pressure, with the Russian ruble reversing early gains. USD/RUB was last up 0.27% to 68.12.
The South African rand was down more than 2%, with USD/ZAR last at 14.6863.
Emerging market currencies have been hard hit by concerns that higher U.S. interest rates will pressure countries that have borrowed heavily in dollars in recent years.
The dollar was lower against the traditional safe haven yen, with USD/JPY down 0.36% to 111.31.
The euro was weaker against the stronger dollar, with EUR/USD down 0.4% to 1.1660.
The pound was steady, with GBP/USD at 1.3020 after gaining 1.23% in the previous session, its largest one-day percentage gain since March 21.
The pound surged after European Union negotiator Michel Barnier said the bloc was prepared to offer Britain a partnership after it exited the bloc, easing some concerns over the prospect of a no-deal Brexit.
The pound was also stronger against the euro, with EUR/GBP falling 0.37% to 0.8954 after ending the previous session with a loss of 1.09%.