Investing.com - The greenback extended gains on Wednesday as investors turned away from riskier assets in the wake of global economic slowdown fears.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a basket of six major currencies, jumped 0.2% to more than a one-week high of 96.433 as of 10:51 AM ET (14:51 GMT).
Dovish comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, along with concerns over the bond market sent worrying signals on the health of the economy.
Earlier in the day Draghi said the ECB could delay raising interest rates and still had other tools at its disposal to support the economy. But he admitted that the euro zone was experiencing a "persistent deterioration of external demand."
Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury bond yields continued to fall, with the benchmark 10-Year note hitting 2.37%, while the yield on the three-month Treasury bill had fallen to 2.46%.
The dollar rose against the safe-haven yen, with USD/JPY slipped 0.3% to 110.31.
The pound was mostly flat, as parliament prepares for a series of indicative votes on alternatives to Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit agreement. GBP/USD was at 1.3205.
Elsewhere, AUD/USD slumped 0.7% to 0.7080, while NZD/USD fell 1.6% to 0.6793. The loonie was down, with USD/CAD rising 0.3% to 1.3421 and EUR/USD inched down 0.1% to 1.1248.