The dollar continued its decline against the yen and the euro today, after the US debt ceiling negotiations faltered and following comments by Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve (US Central Bank), in which he indicated that he preferred to slow the pace of raising interest rates.
The dollar fell 0.15% to 137.725 yen at the beginning of the week’s trading, after cutting last Friday a series of gains that lasted for six days, retreating from the highest level in six months.
While the euro rose 0.14% to 1.08205 dollars, continuing the rise it witnessed on Friday, from its lowest level in seven weeks.
The dollar index, which measures the performance of the US currency against six major currencies, witnessed a slight change to reach 103.07 points, hovering around the highest level at 103.63 points that it reached last week, and this level was last recorded on March 20.
On the other hand, the British pound rose 0.14% to $1.2464, continuing its recovery from its lowest level in three weeks, which it recorded last week.
There was little change in the Australian dollar at $ 0.6652. As for the New Zealander, it rose 0.16% to $0.62855.
The Chinese yuan fell to 7.0359 against the dollar in offshore trading, back towards a six-month low reached on Friday at 7.0750.
The White House announced last night that there were “serious” differences in the negotiations to raise the US debt ceiling, acknowledging that talks with the Republicans will remain difficult as the two sides seek to reach an agreement that avoids Washington defaulting on its debt.