Dollar edges up against euro, hits two-week high vs yen

By Samuel Indyk

LONDON (Reuters) – The euro edged further away from a one-month high on Wednesday and the U.S. dollar nudged up, lifted by higher Treasury yields as global inflation worries flared anew.

The dollar index, which measures the currency against six major peers, including the euro, rose 0.2% to 101.96, extending Tuesday’s gains, when data showed euro zone consumer inflation soaring to a record.

The euro was down 0.2% against the greenback, continuing to edge back from a one-month high of $1.0787, reached on Monday, when national inflation readings from the euro zone indicated a high print for the bloc.

“Belgian, Spanish and German inflation data on Monday set the scene,” said Jamie Dutta, market analyst at Vantage Markets.

“EUR/USD has approached the $1.08 level, coming back from the depths of $1.0348, so what we’ve seen is really a technical pullback,” Dutta added.

The dollar index hit a one-month low of 101.29 on Monday after pulling back from a nearly two-decade high above 105 in mid-May, as U.S. inflation and other economic indicators showed signs of peaking amid the Federal Reserve’s aggressive policy tightening.

A two-day boost has seen the index trading back towards 102.00.

“The greenback appears less sluggish than it has been in recent trading sessions, but its rebound attempts remain far from convincing,” UniCredit analysts said in a research note.

Markets have priced half-point interest rate rises for the Fed’s meetings this month and next, in line with what policymakers have been signalling, but the outlook beyond that is murky.

A monthly U.S. jobs report due on Friday may offer new clues.

The dollar was up 0.5% to 129.345 yen, having earlier touched 129.54, its highest since May 17, as rising U.S. Treasury yields lifted the pair.

“Yield differentials between the U.S. and Japan are still discouraging any tentative attempts to drag the pair towards 125,” UniCredit said.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields were up 1.8 basis points at 2.8622%, having earlier touched their highest level since May 19 at 2.888%.

The spread between U.S. and Japanese 10-year bond yields widened to 265 basis points, the most since May 19.

Elsewhere, the U.S. dollar was little changed against its Canadian counterpart ahead of the Bank of Canada’s rate-setting meeting at 1400 GMT, where a 50-basis-point increase is widely expected.

The Aussie dollar strengthened 0.2% to $0.7185 after data showed Australian GDP rose 0.8% in the March quarter from the previous quarter, topping market forecasts of a 0.5% gain. The Kiwi dollar fell 0.1% to $0.65065.

Sterling was flat against the dollar at $1.2605, after the pound’s first positive month of the year, with a small 0.2% rise snapping the previous four months of losses.

China’s yuan slid for a second day, after posting three straight months of losses, tracking the broad dollar strength in global markets. CNY/

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin slipped 0.6% to $31,572. Ether was flat at $1,937.

(Reporting by Samuel Indyk in London Additional reporting by Kevin Buckland in Tokyo; Editing by Mark Potter)