By Gina Lee
Investing.com – The dollar was down on Friday morning in Asia, with investors retreating from the greenback whilst maintaining its safe-haven asset title as the number of COVID-19 case continue to rise.
The total number of cases globally is almost at 9.6 million as of June 26, according to Johns Hopkins data. Some parts of the U.S. reported a spike in cases, with Texas announcing on Thursday that it is delaying its re-opening.
Meanwhile, 1.480 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits over the past week, more than the predicted 1.3 million claims in forecasts prepared by Investing.com. Although down from the previous week’s 1.540 million claims, the figures indicated that employees are continuing to lose their jobs from the economic impact of COVID-19.
The U.S. Dollar Index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies slipped 0.10% to 97.295 by 12:28 AM ET (5:28 AM GMT)
“When you look at things like restaurant bookings data, it looks as if they are heading back to square one after a strong recovery...if this continues day by day, people will likely have to review their recovery scenario,” Kyosuke Suzuki, director of forex at Societe Generale (OTC:SCGLY), told Reuters.
The USD/JPY pair was down 0.04% to 107.15.
The AUD/USD pair gained 0.14% to 0.6895 and the NZD/USD pair jumped 0.31% to 0.6448.
The USD/CNY pair remained flat at 7.0782 and the GBP/USD pair gained 0.18% to 1.2436.