Dollar Falls on Strong British pound, Euro; Aussie Dollar Slips By Investing.com

Investing.com – The dollar fell on Thursday as British pound and the Euro rose on breakthrough from Brexit talks, while the Aussie dollar slipped despite data showed the country’s trade surplus in July was better than expected.

The , which tracks the greenback to a basket of other currencies, fell by 0.11% to 94.97 by 1:30AM ET (05:30 GMT). The dollar, widely seen as a safe haven asset recently at times of turmoil because of its status as the world’s reserve currency, has gained 8% since end-March, with currencies in emerging markets taking a hammering.

“The dollar continues to face residual pressure from the buoyant pound amid the latest speculation over Brexit. How long this lift could last remains to be seen, but it is prompting buy backs of other European currencies like the euro and Swiss franc for now,” said Takuya Kanda, general manager at Gaitame.com Research.

The pair traded 0.3% lower and hovered near its lowest level since May 2016 as the pair took heavy hits from recent turmoil in the emerging markets. The Aussie dollar has now declined about 8% so far in 2018.

Australia’s in July was A$1.551 billion, above economists’ forecasts of around A$1.4 billion, data on Thursday showed.

Uncertainty that surrounds the economic outlook for China, Australia’s key trading partner, has also weighed on the Aussie.

Meanwhile, Argentina’s currency hit a record low earlier this week and Turkey’s lira crisis made headlines in late August. South Africa’s rand also fell at a 2% rate against the dollar, marking the lowest level since early 2016. Half of the decline was partly due to the controversies over the country’s land expropriation laws.

Elsewhere, The pair was down 0.1% to 111.42, while the pair gained 0.1% to 6.8414 as the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) set the yuan reference rate at 6.8217 vs Wednesday’s fix of 6.8266.