Lumen Technologies hires Sean Alexander as head of Connected Ecosystems
(New throughout; changes dateline, previous LONDON)
By Kate Duguid
NEW YORK, April 17 (Reuters) - The dollar ticked lower on
Friday as investors, cautiously optimistic about the results of
a drug trial and President Donald Trump's plan to reopen the
economy, regained some appetite for risk.
Sentiment was boosted overnight by a media report detailing
encouraging partial data from experimental drug trials on
severely ill COVID-19 patients at a University of Chicago
hospital. News of Trump's plans to reopen the world's largest economy
was also taken by investors as a positive sign, even after
Thursday's jobless data showed a record 22 million Americans
sought unemployment benefits in the last month. The overnight moves toppled the dollar, which has closely
tracked risk sentiment through the coronavirus crisis, from a
week high, with the dollar index =USD last down 0.16%. Other
safe-haven assets like Treasury yields were lower, while the S&P
500 index .SPX rallied 1.3%.
The dollar also fell against the euro EUR= , the British
pound GBP= and the Canadian dollar CAD= , though it
strengthened against the Japanese yen JPY= and the Swiss franc
CHF= , other safe-haven currencies.
"Stronger risk appetite put a brake on the greenback's
rally," said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union
Business Solutions.
"Markets' heightened sensitivity to all things coronavirus
sent U.S. stocks soaring at the expense of the safe bet
greenback. Still, sustaining optimism has been challenging at
best which suggests any decline in the dollar may only prove
temporary."
The dollar remains on track for a small weekly gain after
the safe-haven rally this week on dismal data from the United
States on Wednesday and Thursday and a report that China's
economy contracted in the first quarter, its first quarterly
contraction since the country began publishing the data in 1992.
As the dollar fell, the euro rose 0.41%. The euro has fallen
about 1.36% against the dollar already this month, facing its
biggest monthly fall since July last year, after hitting its
lowest against the Swiss franc in almost five years earlier this
week. EURCHF=
With French President Emmanuel Macron warning that the
European Union could collapse unless it finds a way to share the
costs of the crisis, the coronavirus has exposed the
vulnerability of the single currency. "EUR's status might have been evolving since the COVID-19
outbreak but, going forward, we are bearish. This is because we
expect European data to decouple further from US data, and that
is partly due to the lack of a coordinated European fiscal
response - which we remain concerned about," wrote Bank of
America strategists in a note to clients.