The dollar rose against its major counterparts on Thursday, as traders awaited the release of delayed US inflation data on Friday, while assessing the threats of new tariffs between Washington and Beijing.
The yen fell to its lowest levels in a week against the dollar as the market awaits details of a large stimulus package from new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who is widely seen as leaning toward fiscal and monetary easing.
The pound sterling remained under pressure after British data showed on Wednesday that consumer price inflation remained stable at 3.8% last month, despite economists’ expectations of an acceleration.
The dollar index, which measures the performance of the US currency against the yen, British pound, euro and three other currencies, rose 0.05% to 98.979 by 0050 GMT.
The dollar rose 0.17% to 152.21 yen, and had previously touched 152.26 yen for the first time since October 14.
The British pound fell 0.09% to $1.3345, and the euro fell 0.06% to $1.1604.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that the administration of US President Donald Trump is considering imposing restrictions on a wide range of exports of its software to China, from laptop computers to aircraft engines, to respond to the latest round of restrictions imposed by Beijing on its exports of rare earth materials.
However, the currency market reaction was largely optimistic and traditional safe-haven currencies such as the yen and Swiss franc received little support.
Meanwhile, official macroeconomic data continues to be scarce in the United States as the government shutdown approaches its twenty-third day, and the Consumer Price Index will be published tomorrow, Friday, more than a week late.
