Euro finds footing, dollar wobbles toward Fed minutes

SINGAPORE  – The euro steadied on Wednesday and riskier currencies bounced, lifted by optimism China’s eventual emergence from COVID restrictions helps growth, while investor focus turned to U.S. data and the Federal Reserve.

The euro had lost 1 percent overnight, its sharpest drop in more than two months, following a larger-than-expected drop in German inflation, but it edged up from three-week lows to $1.0566 in Asia trade.

The trade-and-China sensitive Australian dollar strengthened 0.7 percent to $0.6735, recouping some of its overnight losses, while the yuan nudged about 0.2 percent firmer to 6.9010 per dollar – creeping back toward Tuesday’s four-month peak.

State media in China played down the severity of a surge of COVID-19 infections on Tuesday as the country shifts out of lockdowns and restrictions to living with the virus.

The Thai baht has scaled six-month highs on expectations its economy will gain from improved tourism as China drops quarantine for travellers and the Singapore dollar hit an 18-month high on Tuesday.

Larger moves were capped in the still holiday-thinned Asia session by looming economic data in the United States and the release of minutes from last month’s Federal Reserve meeting. “We’re back in to some A-league economic data, so maybe we’ll get some more fundamentally-driven price action out of that,” said National Australia Bank’s head of FX strategy, Ray Attrill, in Sydney.

The yen was 0.2 percent stronger at 130.76 per dollar.

The U.S. dollar index rose 1 percent on Tuesday to 104.73, mostly due to the euro’s drop, and it eased a little on Wednesday to 104.47. Sterling hovered at $1.1986 and the kiwi nudged 0.3 percent higher to $0.6263.

Headline German CPI fell to an annual 8.6 percent in December, from 10 percent the previous month, against expectations for 9.1 percent , data on Tuesday showed, knocking the euro and rallying bunds.