U.S. Dollar Suffered Losses on December 8

The U.S. currency declined on Wednesday morning in Asia, while the Australian dollar hit a one-week high. Importantly, investors’ risk appetite increased thanks to the information that the omicron variant of the Covid-19 is less severe, even though existing vaccines can’t afford full protection. 

Nevertheless, Alex Sigal from Africa’s Health Research Institute warned that Pfizer’s vaccine could be only partially effective against omicron. 

On Tuesday, GlaxoSmithKline PLC said that its antibody-based Covid-19 therapy is effective against all mutations of the omicron variant. The company is co-developing sotrovimab with Vir Biotechnology Inc. 

The U.S. Dollar Index that tracks the world’s most powerful currency against a basket of currencies fell on Wednesday. The index dropped 0.23% to 96.150 11:41 PM ET. 

The AUD/USD pair gained 0.27% to 0.7137. The NZD/USD pair advanced 0.10% to 0.6795. 

The USD/JPY pair dropped 0.04% to 113.52. 

The USD/CNY pair fell 0.18% to 6.3543. On Wednesday, the GBP/USD pair gained 0.12% to 1.3257. 

Australian dollar vs. the greenback

The Australian dollar or the Aussie as people call it is up 1.71% against the U.S. currency for the week. The Aussie is on track for its best performance in several months. The country’s currency also rallied 2.28% against the yen and headed towards its best week since mid-October 2021.

 Meantime, the Canadian dollar traded at C$1.2645 against the U.S. dollar, near a two-week high of C$1.2635 set overnight. 

In several hours, the Bank of Canada, alongside the Reserve Bank of India, will hand down its policy decision. The Bank of England, the European Central Bank, as well as the Federal Reserve will hand down their policy decisions next week.

Investors are also waiting for U.S. and Chinese inflation data. Notably, China will release its consumer and producer price indexes on Thursday.