By Alex Ho
Investing.com - The Euro and the pound both traded higher on Thursday in Asia ahead of U.K. and EU trade talks that were set for March 2.
The EUR/USD pair and the GBP/USD pair rose 0.3% and 0.2% respectively by 1:45 AM ET (05:45 GMT).
Despite the gains today, traders are concerned that tough rhetoric from both sides recently suggests negotiations will be anything but smooth.
The EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said the bloc would not agree a deal "at any price" and rebuffed the idea of offering the U.K. a Canada-style trade agreement.
The U.S. dollar index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies was down 0.1% to 98.832.
Reports that the spread of the new coronavirus globally continued to gather pace were cited as headwinds for the greenback.
The U.S. confirmed its first community transmission of the virus on Wednesday, as the Centers for Disease Control and Preventionn (CDC) said a California patient, who did not have a relevant travel history or exposure to another patient with the new coronavirus, was infected.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Korea unexpected kept rates unchanged even after the number of cases in South Korea rose above 1,500 today from just around 31 in a little more than a week.
On Wednesday, the World Health Organization said that for the first time the virus was spreading faster outside China, where it originated.
The USD/JPY pair lost 0.3% to 110.04 as the Japanese yen attracted some safe-haven demand.
The AUD/USD pair rose 0.2% to 0.6550, while the NSD/USD pair was little changed at 0.6292 as S&P Global Ratings affirmed New Zealand’s credit quality rating.