China shows tentative recovery signs in bad news for dollar

The US dollar appeared to lose its position of dominance on Tuesday as trading got back underway in earnest following the long weekend.

Several major economies, including those in North America as well as many in Europe, took a few days off trading for the Easter weekend in recent days.

However, as trading volumes began to tick up again on Tuesday morning, it was revealed that Chinese trade balance information was more positive than had previously been expected.

According to the figures, Chinese exports denominated in the yuan – which is the country’s currency – were down just 3.5% last month (March) compared to the same month the year before.

While this was still a drop, it was considered by many to be a low drop when positioned in the wider context of the coronavirus pandemic.

The level of imports into the country were shown to have gone up – this time by 2.4%.

The release of this data had a knock-on effect for several other currencies across the globe.

The Australian dollar, for example, was up by 0.7% at one stage – reaching $0.6432 in its position against the US dollar.

This was largely because the Aussie dollar is deeply connected to the fortunes of the Chinese economy.

It tends to perform well when the Chinese economy does well because of the trading relationship between the two Asia-Pacific region nations.

Elsewhere, the New Zealand dollar – which also has a connection to China when it comes to value – was up by 0.6% at one stage in its greenback pair.

It was noted at $0.6131 here.

However, some analysts are beginning to predict that the Australian dollar in particular could be about to undergo a period of suffering.

This is due in part to suggestions that trends in the global economy are not working in its favour.

For the New Zealand dollar, the publication of five potential sets of circumstances for the economy appeared to spell bad news.

Each set in the release, from the country’s Treasury (finance ministry), predicted that there would be a decline in the value of the economy over this quarter.

Elsewhere around the world, the Japanese yen was in a position of 107.60 in its pair against the US dollar.

This was a slightly worse performance given that it had reached a fortnightly record the day before.

The British pound, however, was up by almost half a percentage point in its pair with the US dollar.

It was seen at $1.2562 at one point.

This reflected its best position since the middle of last month.

The country’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has now been released from a central London hospital after a spell in there – including a stay in intensive care.

He is now undergoing a process of recovery from coronavirus.

The single European currency went down overnight in its pair against the greenback, although it later managed to gain back some of its footing.

It was seen at $1.0943 at one stage.