The United States of America dollar firmed on Thursday, May 17, after the euro retreated to a five-month low on concerns political developments in Italy could cause wider disruptions in the euro bloc, while rising U.S. Treasury yields knocked emerging market currencies lower.
The dollar was 0.15 percent lower at 110.270 yen. A rise above 110.450 would take the greenback to its highest since Feb. 2 versus its Japanese peer.
The euro was last at $1.1827, up 0.15 percent on the day, after sliding overnight to $1.1763, its lowest since Dec. 18. The common currency has shed nearly 1 percent this week.
For now the euro also faced pressure from a bullish dollar, which has been boosted this week as U.S. benchmark yields broke above the 3 percent threshold to a seven-year high, Reuters reports.
The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies dipped 0.2 percent to 93.180 but was in close reach of 93.632, its highest since Dec. 19 marked on Wednesday.
The pound rose 0.5 percent to $1.3558 after the Telegraph reported that Britain will tell Brussels it is prepared to stay in the European Union’s customs union beyond 2021.
The Australian dollar added 0.3 percent to $0.7540 after gaining 0.6 percent overnight, buoyed by a rise in prices of commodities such as copper.
Other commodity-linked currencies like the Canadian dollar also advanced as equities bounced back overnight from the previous day’s losses caused by the spike in U.S. yields.
The Turkish lira and Argentina’s peso have been at the heart of the storm. The lira has marked a succession of record lows against the dollar this month while the peso has lost a quarter of its value versus the greenback since the start of the year, Reuter reports.
