The dollar has steadied while retaining a bullish bias after a local rally witnessed yesterday
Following the recent ascent, Wall Street stocks finished mixed overnight as risk demand has waned somehow, with investors continuing to monitor pandemic-related news amid the rising threat of the Omicron coronavirus variant, making many economists revise lower their forecasts for economic growth in the first quarter of 2022. As such, the Dow Jones added 0.26%, the Nasdaq fell 0.6%, and the S&P 500 dipped just 0.1% from all-time highs.
Asian equities were mostly lower on Wednesday following a mixed Wall Street session. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.21% even as the country registered a record surge in infections. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was 0.83% lower as market players eyed the continued debt crisis in the mainland’s property market. The Chinese Shanghai Composite shed nearly 15 as well.
In Europe, stocks opened mostly in the positive territory in thin holiday trading, with the pan-European Euro Stoxx 600 index rising nearly 0.2% in early deals. In France, CAC 40 advanced 0.2% despite the country reporting a record high of 179,807 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday. US stock index futures climbed marginally in early pre-market trading.
In currencies, the dollar has steadied while retaining a bullish bias after a local rally witnessed yesterday. The USD index bounced from the 96.00 figure to regain the 96.30 region on Wednesday. As a result, the EURUSD pair slipped back below the 1.1300 area to register one-week lows around 1.1280 in recent deals. As the common currency has dropped below the 20-DMA, the pair may extend the decline towards the 1.1250 region in the short term.
