Dollar strikes after losses as investors seek new clues over US economy By Reuters

By Stanley White

TOKYO (Reuters) – The dollar rose against most currencies on Monday as traders waited for more data on the U.S. economy after a disappointing report last week dropped the outbreaks of a boom in the greenback.

The euro made gains against the dollar, but it is a test later on Monday with data that was expected at the end of last year to slow down German production growth.

Speculators have reduced short positions in the dollar, but some analysts believe that better US economic data and continued progress in combating the COVID-19 pandemic are needed for further dollar gains.

“Soft non-farming payrolls have really pulled the ladder out of the dollar,” said Yukio Ishizuki, foreign exchange strategist at Daiwa Securities.

“Now the markets are asking if the dollar can rise further. A lot depends on the coronavirus, but we also need to know when the US fiscal stimulus will succeed.”

Against the euro, the dollar traded at $ 1.2042 after a 0.7% slump on Friday.

The British pound bought $ 1.3731, almost a high of almost three years.

The dollar was quoted at 105.49 yen after pulling back from a three-month high reached on Friday.

The U.S. economy created fewer jobs than expected in January, while job losses last month were deeper than initially reported, the data showed at the end of last week.

The announcement of U.S. consumer prices and consumer sentiment later this week will help determine whether a recent rise in Treasury inflation expectations and returns was justified.

Some analysts have said that any disappointing numbers from one report or another would drop the dollar. Investors are also keeping a close eye on a US debate over additional fiscal stimulus.

President Joe Biden and his Democrats are pushing for a $ 1.9 billion aid package COVID-19. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi predicted that the final relief legislation could pass Congress by March 15.

The opposite of a basket of six major currencies stood at 91,045 after falling 0.6% on Friday.

Speculators’ net clumsy bets on the dollar fell to $ 29.95 billion for the week ended February 2, compared to a net short position of $ 33.81 billion for the previous week, according to calculations by Reuters and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

In the cryptocurrency market, etherum spot prices rose 0.09% to $ 1,618 following the listing of etherum futures on Sunday on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

, the most popular cryptocurrency, fell 0.42% to $ 38,693.

The rise has risen slightly to $ 6.4577 per dollar, but trading is likely to slow down ahead of the week-long Chinese New Year holiday that begins Thursday.

Elsewhere, the Australian dollar held steady at $ 0.7675. Across the Tasman Sea, the New Zealand dollar rose to $ 0.7200.