Dollar slumps amidst monetary tightening plans

• Naira depreciates also

The Dollar fell to a nine-week low against a basket of major currencies on Thursday as investors shifted their focus from a trade row between China and the United States to the Federal Reserve’s monetary tightening plans.

Traders say they do not expect the dispute to produce a sharp global shock, at least for now, and foresee any fallout taking some time to filter through to corporate earnings.

U.S. economic data has remained strong, and the dollar has tended to act as a safe-haven trade, gaining as tensions between Washington and Beijing escalate.

As risk appetite picked up on Thursday, the greenback slid 0.8 percent against its currency basket to 93.862, its lowest since July 9.

“Fears of a full-blown emerging market currency crisis are basically over and we’re also seeing some in the market speculating that the end of the Fed’s interest hike cycle may be coming into sight,” said Commerzbank currencies strategist Ulrich Leuchtmann.

The Federal Reserve is next week expected to raise benchmark borrowing costs and shed more light on its future rate path.

“Scepticism about the dollar’s rally has been building so I think, seeing a small dip, traders jumped at an opportunity to unwind long bets,” he said.

Emerging market currencies strengthened, led by the Indian rupee after China said it would not retaliate with competitive devaluations.

For some market participants, the dollar retains underlying strength.

“It is the champion reserve currency and it has the risk-free Fed funds rate. So the currency with the lowest risk is offering the highest yield in G10,” said Andreas Koenig, global head of FX at asset manager Amundi.

Sterling has strengthened recently on optimism that Britain and the European Union can make significant progress towards a Brexit deal at the summit.

Meanwhile at home, Nigeria’s local currency, the Naira depreciated to N363.27 per dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window even as the volume of dollars traded rose marginally by 257 percent.

Data from FMDQ showed that the indicative exchange rate for the window rose to N363.27 per dollar yesterday from N362.97 per dollar on Wednesday, indicating 30 kobo depreciation of the Naira.

The volume of dollars traded on the window yesterday rose by 257 percent to $401.69 million from $112.66 million traded on Wednesday.

However, it remained stable at N359 per dollar in the parallel market.