By Gina Lee
Investing.com – The dollar was down on Tuesday morning in Asia, with investors turning from the safe-haven asset as hopes of a COVID-19 vaccine rise.
The U.S. Dollar Index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies edged down 0.16% to 92.910 by 12:16 AM ET (5:16 AM GMT).
Britain's AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) resumed the U.K. clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, currently one of the most advanced. Meanwhile, Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech are looking to expand phase 3 trials for their own candidate, the American company said on Monday.
“It was uplifting that Pfizer has made clear a target of vaccines. As risk assets bounced back, the dollar has lost momentum,” Societe Generale (OTC:SCGLY) director of forex Kyosuke Suzuki told Reuters.
The USD/JPY pair inched down 0.07% to 105.65. Yoshihide Suga looks set to replace incumbent Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after comfortably winning the leadership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on Monday, pending a parliamentary vote on Wednesday.
The USD/CNY pair was down 0.31% to 6.7870. China’s economic recovery from COVID-19 continued to show robust progress, with retail sales increasing 0.5% year-on-year and industrial production increasing 45.6% year-on-year in August. Retail sales reported their first increase, with both sets of figures beating expectations. The unemployment rate for the month was 5.6%, against July’s 5.7%.
The GBP/USD pair edged up 0.14% to 1.2862, despite the continuing turmoil surrounding Brexit negotiations.
However, the pound remains volatile, with an initial parliamentary vote on the U.K.’s controversial bill to violate the Brexit agreement with the European Union (EU) passed on Tuesday. The EU warned that the passage of the U.K.’s bill would lead to a collapse in negotiations, increasing the possibility of a no-deal Brexit.
The AUD/USD pair gained 0.43% to 0.7319 and the NZD/USD pair was up 0.30% to 0.6718.
Meanwhile, investors are looking to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy meeting on Wednesday, with central banks in Japan and the U.K. to hand down their own policy decisions on Thursday.