Dollar down broadly on renewed fear of a U.S. government shutdown

Market Review - 18/01/2018   23:59GMT  

Dollar down broadly on renewed fear of a U.S. government shutdown

The greenback erased previous day's gain and ended the day lower against majority of its peers on Thursday as concerns over a potential U.S. government shutdown continued to linger.  
  
Versus the Japanese yen, dollar traded with a firm bias and gained to session high at 111.48 in Asia. However, the pair retreated to 111.09 ahead of European open and remained under pressure in New York trading due to concerns over U.S. government shutdown, price later weakened to session lows of 110.70 before staging a recovery on short covering.  
  
Although the single currency resumed its late selloff in New York session on Wednesday and hit a session low at 1.2166 in Australia, price pared its losses and gained to 1.2204 at Asian open. Euro continued to edge higher throughout European trading and climbed to 1.2265 in New York morning before moving narrowly for rest of New York afternoon.  
  
In other news, Chancellor Angela Merkel's top Bavarian ally Horst Seehofer, has told the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) they will plunge Germany into political crisis if at Sunday's specially convened party meeting they vote against further coalition talks.  
  
The British pound tracked euro's initial movements and dropped to 1.3807 in Australia and continued to remain under pressure in Asia. Despite a marginal break to an intra-day low at 1.3805 at European open, cable pared its losses and rallied in tandem with euro to session high at 1.3912 in New York before easing.  
  
On the data front, the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending January 13 fell by 31,000 to a seasonally adjusted 220,000 from 261,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said. Analysts had expected claims to fall to 250,000 last week.  
  
Data to be released on Friday:  
  
New Zealand manufacturing PMI, Germany producer price, Swiss producer/import price, EU current account, U.K. retail sales, Canada manufacturing sales, and U.S. University of Michigan sentiment.