CURRENCIES: Dollar Falls To Lowest Level In 4 Months After Health Bill Is Pulled
March 27 2017 - 5:13AM
Dow Jones News
By Victor Reklaitis, MarketWatch , Suryatapa Bhattacharya
Strategist: It will take robust monthly employment figures or
hawkish Fed guidance to stop the buck's slide
A key U.S. dollar index on Monday fell to its lowest level in
more than four months as the failure of a President Trump-backed
measure to repeal Obamacare gave investors a cue to step away from
the buck.
The ICE Dollar Index , which measures the currency against a
basket of six major rivals, was down 0.6% at 99.08. The gauge has
traded on Monday as low as 99.04, representing its lowest mark
since the first half of November, according to FactSet data.
The dollar dropped against the yen to Yen110.25, down from
Yen111.20 late Friday in New York. The euro rose to $1.0864, up
from $1.0799, while the British pound moved up to $1.2564 from
$1.2490.
"This is the market reacting to Donald Trump's failure to
implement one of his major campaign promises," said Bart
Wakabayashi, Tokyo branch manager for State Street.
Read:Wall Street fear threatens a dramatic comeback in the stock
market
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/stock-markets-old-friend-volatility-threatening-to-make-a-glorious-return-2017-03-24)
The setback for the White House has strengthened uncertainty
over the U.S. administration's ability to push through its agenda.
It has added momentum to an unraveling of support for the dollar,
which has picked up steam since the Federal Reserve decided to
raise U.S. interest rates.
Investors see the failure of the U.S. administration to secure
the votes needed to pass the health-care bill as a "harbinger of
things to come," Wakabayashi said. "They see it as a lot of
opposition to [Trump's] policies. They see general risk on trade
and fiscal policy, and a lot of promises we may have to revisit and
cross out some of them."
It will take robust monthly employment figures or hawkish
guidance from the Fed to stop the dollar's slide, said Masashi
Murata, currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in
Tokyo.
-- Hiroyuki Kachi contributed to this article.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 27, 2017 04:58 ET (08:58 GMT)
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