By Gina Lee
The dollar was down on Wednesday morning in Asia with investors awaiting the results of a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting later in the day.
The U.S. Dollar Index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies slipped 0.15% to 99.785 by 11:14 PM ET (4:14 AM GMT), with stocks recording gains and investors retreating from the greenback, traditionally viewed as a safe haven.
Investors are looking to the Fed meeting for clues on its future policy in the aftermath of the ‘unlimited quantitative easing’ unleased over the past two months to combat the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The European Central Bank will also meet on Thursday.
The USD/JPY pair was down 0.28% to 106.56. The yen is also viewed as a safe haven by investors.
The AUD/USD pair gained 0.53% to 0.6525 and the NZD/USD pair gained 0.64% to 0.6093, as the Antipodean currencies benefitted from investors’ increased risk appetite.
As Australia and New Zealand eased some of the lockdown measures implemented to curb the spread COVID-19, the AUD has especially benefitted as it rose 6% on the month and jumped 18% from its 17-year-low in March.
“This is quite extraordinary,” National Australia Bank’s head of FX strategy, Ray Attrill, told CNBC.
But he added, “It didn’t underperform the G10 pack by nearly as much in March and does leave us a little cautious about the near-term outlook."
The USD/CNY pair held steady at 7.0777 and the GBP/USD pair gained 0.39% to 1.2470.
