The U.S. dollar strengthened against the Vietnamese dong Wednesday morning and was mostly firm against major currencies.
Vietcombank sold the greenback at VND26,330, up 0.04% from Tuesday. The currency rose 0.35% to around VND25,800 on the black market.
The State Bank of Vietnam hiked its reference rate by 0.09% to VND25,539.
Globally, the dollar traded sideways in early Asian dealings on Wednesday, shrugging off renewed attacks on shipping in critical waterways in the Middle East, as currency markets awaited the release of inflation data later in the global day, Reuters reported.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was up 0.1% at 99.858.
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An employee counts U.S. banknotes at a bank in Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy |
The yen was flat against the dollar at 159.335 yen, hovering around its weakest levels of the month despite the recent joint intervention by U.S. and Japanese authorities to strengthen the Japanese currency.
The euro held steady at $1.1537. The British pound was also unchanged at $1.3503. The Australian dollar was flat at $0.7064 while the kiwi dollar was down 0.1% at $0.5876.
The main focus for markets this week is on the release of U.S. inflation data due later on Wednesday for clues to the direction of Federal Reserve interest rates, as last week’s softer-than-expected jobs report and a press conference by Fed Chair Kevin Warsh last month did little to dispel doubts.
