Dollar edges down as U.S. unveils COVID tests for travelers from China

By Scott Kanowsky 

Investing.com -- The U.S. dollar edged slightly lower on Thursday in reduced European trading, as the U.S. and Italy joined a list of countries to require COVID-19 testing by incoming travelers from China.

As of 03:37 ET (08:37 GMT), the U.S. Dollar Index - which tracks the greenback against a basket of six other currencies - was lower by 0.22% to 104.24. That marked a paring back from earlier gains spurred on by a rise in benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yields, which hit a more than one-month high overnight.

Authorities in Washington and Rome, as well as India, have now said that they will make people coming into these nations from China take COVID-19 tests.

Beijing had previously announced that it will remove quarantine rules for inbound travelers starting on January 8, sparking hopes that the world's second-largest economy may be moving past an era of strict coronavirus regulations. But this optimism is showing signs of fading as cases spread across the country.

The Chinese offshore yuan moved up more than 0.2% to 6.9791 against the dollar.

The British pound rose 0.26% to 1.2044, but was hovering just under its December low of 1.1993, while the euro also bumped up 0.27% to 1.0637.

Meanwhile, the Japanese yen rallied to 133.61 per dollar, nearly canceling out a loss of 0.7% on Wednesday. Analysts at Resona Holdings said an announcement from the BOJ earlier in December that it will loosen its 10-year Japanese government bond yield band has fuelled speculation that the central bank will tighten monetary policy further next year.

Elsewhere, the Russian ruble touched its lowest mark against the U.S. dollar since April, as worries increase that key export revenues will be hit by sanctions on the country's oil and gas.