By Gina Lee
Investing.com – The U.S. dollar surged in Asia on Friday as crude oil prices came off a record session.
Crude oil prices jumped almost 25% as U.S. President Trump hinted at a possible resolution to the Saudi Arabia - Russia price war yesterday.
The US Dollar Index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies gained 0.04% to 100.31 by 11:32 AM ET (04:32 GMT).
Meanwhile, the United States faces record unemployment rates due to the COVID-19 epidemic as it announced overnight that 6.648 million people in the country claimed unemployment.
“The U.S. labor market has more or less collapsed,” Joe Capurso, Commonwealth Bank of Australia currency analyst, said to CNBC.
“The increase in the dollar because of the poor U.S. economic data reflects the dollar’s status as a counter-cyclical currency. It lifts when the global economy deteriorates, even if the deterioration in the global economy is the U.S.,” he added.
The USD/JPY pair was up 0.01% to 107.92.
Down Under, the AUD/USD pair gained 0.09% to 0.6065 whilst the NZD/USD pair slid 0.12% to 0.5909.
The USD/CNY pair gained 0.1% to 7.0890, and the GBP/USD pair slid 0.14% to 1.2374.
As the World Health Organization said that the number of global COVID-19 cases exceeded 900,000 as of April 2, investors continue to bide their time.
“Until the virus peaks, we anticipate the selling pressure will prevail and capital outflows will continue, although the biggest wave may have occurred in March,” Piotr Matys, senior emerging markets FX Strategist at Rabobank, told CNBC.
“If a synchronized global recession transforms into depression, then all bets will be off,” he added.
Japanese bank Nomura said in a note that it expects the world economy to contract by 18% in the first quarter, on an annualized basis, and is set to shrink about 4% in 2020.