By Alex Ho
Investing.com - The U.S. dollar fell on Monday in Asia after the U.S. Federal Reserve slashed its benchmark interest rate to zero and launched a massive quantitative easing (QE) program in an emergency move over the weekend.
On Sunday, the Fed shocked investors by announcing a 50 basis point rate cut. It was the second rate slash by the central bank in less than two weeks as it delivered a rare emergency rate cut at the start of the month.
The Fed also announced a QE program that entails $700 billion worth of asset purchases.
Following the news, the U.S. dollar index fell 0.4% to 98.482.
In other news, U.S. President Donald Trump declared a national emergency on Friday as the country recorded more than 2,000 cases and 50 deaths.
The USD/JPY pair lost 1.0% to 106.79 as Asian markets traded in the red again.
The Bank of Japan is expected to ease policy on Thursday to cushion the economic fallout from the coronavirus and shore up business confidence in the country.
Meanwhile, the Japanese government is reportedly preparing a new spending package of up to 20 trillion yen ($190 billion), as it tries to fend off a recession.
The AUD/USD pair and the NZD/USD pair both fell 0.2%.
The EUR/USD pair rose 0.2% to 1.1128 as traders await a meeting between European Union finance ministers later in the day. Reuters reported today that the ministers might agree on a coordinated economic response to the coronavirus pandemic, with the European Commission forecasting the effects of the virus could push the EU into a recession.
The USD/CNY pair slipped 0.1% to 6.9993. While not a directional driver for the yuan today, data showed China’s latest industrial production, employment and retail sales figure all came in a lot worse than expected.