“I think the dollar is staying in a downtrend even though it is marking time for now.”
According to the international news agency, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is expected to signal he has no plan to wind back the Fed’s massive stimulus any time soon when the central bank concludes its policy review on Wednesday.
The dollar index stood at 90.172, flat on the day. It bounced back on Friday after hitting 90.043 on Thursday, last week’s lowest level.
Economic activity in the euro zone declined markedly in January as stringent restrictions to contain the pandemic hit the bloc’s dominant service industry hard while UK data showed British retailers struggled to recover in December.
On Friday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also said there was evidence a new variant of COVID-19 discovered late last year could be associated with higher mortality, while problems in some vaccine roll-outs also weighed on sentiment.
The euro was little changed at $1.2174 , taking a pause after a 0.8% gain last week.
Elsewhere, the British pound held firm at $1.3684, not far off a 2-1/2-year high of $1.3745 touched on Thursday thanks in part to Britain’s lead in COVID-19 vaccinations.
Against the yen, the dollar was flat at 103.76 yen.(Reuters)
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