Euro approaches two-year high

At around 9:10 a.m. GMT (11:10 a.m. CET), the euro gained 0.33% against the greenback, at $ 1.1909, shortly after hitting $ 1.1915, a hair’s breadth from the peak since May 2018 reached on August 6 at 1 , 1916 dollar.

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The euro continued to advance against the dollar on Tuesday and approached the two-year high reached in early August, against a dollar undermined by a disappointing indicator in the United States and the postponement of trade negotiations with China.

At around 9:10 a.m. GMT (11:10 a.m. CET), the euro gained 0.33% against the greenback, at $ 1.1909, shortly after hitting $ 1.1915, a hair’s breadth from the peak since May 2018 reached on August 6 at 1 , 1916 dollar.

The “dollar index”, which measures the performance of the dollar against a basket of currencies, has meanwhile hit its lowest in two years.

The greenback is losing ground “because of the concern over the postponement of discussions on the trade agreement between the United States and China, originally scheduled last Saturday,” said Avtar Sandu, analyst at Phillip Futures.

The two parties were to take stock of the trade agreement signed in January and no date has been given for a new meeting.

In addition, Washington announced on Monday the tightening of sanctions against the Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, extending them to 38 of its subsidiaries, enough to reinforce tensions between the two leading world economic powers.

The New York area manufacturing activity index, also called the Empire State monthly index, has also prompted traders to shed their greenbacks, according to several analysts.

This indicator certainly rose in July, but much less quickly than the pace of June and than expected.

“This shows that the economic recovery in the United States is slowing down and that the slow pace of budget negotiations seems to be weighing on the prospects for small and medium-sized enterprises,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, analyst at Swissquote Bank.

Helped by its safe haven status and the ebb of the dollar, gold rose above the $ 2,000 mark on Tuesday, to $ 2,007.43 per ounce around 9:00 a.m. GMT (11:00 a.m. CET), a first since last Tuesday. .

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