Dollar index drops on coronavirus vaccine optimism
- Dollar and other haven assets suffer losses on prospects for coronavirus vaccines.
- The optimism overshadows rising number of infections worldwide.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback's value against majors, dropped during Monday's Asian trading hours as optimism over the possibility of an early rollout of coronavirus vaccine weighed over the haven assets.
The DXY fell over 0.10% to 92.21, having ended the preceding week with a nearly 0.4% loss.
The FDA is looking to approve drugmaker Pfizer and German partner BioNTech's vaccine in mid-December, chief scientific adviser for "Operation Warp Speed" Moncef Slaoui said. Further, Britain could grant regulatory approval to Pfizer's vaccine this week.
The news has come ahead of the US Thanksgiving Holiday, which could see a mass movement of people and accelerate the second wave of infections. The number of cases worldwide has increased substantially in recent weeks, forcing some nations to reimpose the economically=painful lockdown restrictions.
However, so far, vaccine optimism and ultra-accommodative monetary policies have saved the day for the risky assets, keeping the safe-haven dollar under defensive.
Washinton's continued fiscal impasse has triggered speculation that the Fed would have to do the heavy lifting by boosting stimulus. As such, traders would scrutinize the Fed's last policy meeting minutes to be released on Wednesday for additional stimulus clues.
Technical levels
Author
Omkar Godbole
FXStreet Contributor
Omkar Godbole, editor and analyst, joined FXStreet after four years as a research analyst at several Indian brokerage companies.
