Asian currencies higher as Trump woes weigh on dollar

BENGALURU: Most Asian currencies were higher yesterday against the dollar, which was hit by new suggestions of Russian influence in the 2016 US presidential election and amid wider caution ahead of Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen’s semiannual congressional address.

The currencies of South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand all posted their biggest intraday percentage gains in at least a month as investors pared their greenback positions, although the Philippine peso hovered just above a record low it hit on Tuesday on concerns about the country’s trade deficit.

Emails from the US president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, showed he agreed to take Russian help to find damaging evidence against rival candidate Hillary Clinton during the presidential race last year.

This comes right before the Yellen’s much-awaited address where she is expected to shed some light on the pace of tightening after Fed Governor Lael Brainard’s comments on Tuesday disappointed some dollar bulls.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six major rivals, was 0.09% lower at 95.580 at 0540 GMT.

“Markets are mulling the fairly subdued Federal Open Market Committee tightening theme ahead of Yellen’s speech and I think that this corresponds to softer yields also giving rise to some of the pulls that we see in these currencies,” said Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank in Singapore.

Such currencies include the Taiwan dollar, the South Korean won and to an extent the Singapore dollar, he says, as they have much lower interest rates and correspondingly low yields. – Reuters