The US dollar, which is recognized as a safe haven asset, is significantly strengthening against major world currencies at the beginning of European trading on Monday. The demand is driven by the upcoming US presidential election, which keeps the financial market on edge and largely explains the narrow trading ranges.
The situation with COVID-19 is of great importance for investors in the world. According to Johns Hopkins University, since the beginning of the pandemic, 46.5 million cases of coronavirus infection have been detected worldwide. A record number of cases in the US was marked last Friday amounting to more than 99,000, and over the past two weeks over 1 million cases were recorded. Meanwhile, Britain, along with Germany and France, announced the introduction of partial quarantine measures over the weekend, aimed to contain the rate of spread of the virus.
The dollar index, which tracks its exchange rate against a basket of six other currencies, rose 0.1% which sent it to 94.142. At the time of writing, the indicator has changed slightly to 94.084.
The pound sterling lost 0.2% against the dollar and is now trading at $1.2924. At the close of the previous trading, the pound was at $1.2947.
The euro fell 0.1% against the dollar which sent it to $1.1641. At the close of the previous session, the euro was trading at around $1.1647.
The dollar against the yen rose 0.01% and is now trading at around 104.75. Last Friday, ait was located at £104.66.
The Australian dollar, which has traditionally been recognized as sensitive to risk, also declines against the US dollar by 0.2% which sent it to 0.7028.
The results of the meeting of the US Federal Reserve System and the Bank of England are expected this week. And although the calendar of economic data in the US promises to be quite busy next week, until then the extremely important meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee and the report on the US labor market will not play a primary role. The most significant and long-awaited event is the US presidential election on November 3.
