News: FOREX-Dollar slips as China rekindles growth hopes

The dollar slipped on Monday as investors kept up selling pressure, cutting bets on further dollar gains from rising U.S. rates, while turning hopeful that loosening lockdowns in China can help global growth and exporters' currencies.

U.S equity futures ESc1 bounced sharply in the Asia session and pulled the region's risk-sensitive currencies along for the ride, even as Asia's stockmarkets wobbled.

The Aussie AUD=D3 rose 0.5% to $0.7091 and has lifted 3.8% in a week and a half. The kiwi NZD=D3 rose 0.8% to $0.6458, a three-week high.

"It's a reasonably positive start to the week," said National Australia Bank's head of foreign exchange strategy, Ray Attrill.

"The U.S. dollar looks, for the time being, to be losing upside momentum," he said, tracking a small rally in U.S. bonds that has driven yields lower in recent sessions.

The euro and yen rose, with the Japanese currency JPY=EBS up 0.4% to 127.35 per dollar and the euro EUR=EBS up 0.2% at $1.0586 following last week's 1.5% gain on the dollar.

The U.S. dollar index =USD , up about 16% to a two-decade high over the 12 months to the middle of May, was down about 0.23% at 102.680 and has lost roughly 2% in a week.

The safe-haven Swiss franc CHF=EBS rose too, holding on to sharp gains made last week - its best since March 2020 - when it climbed from parity on the dollar to about 0.9716 per dollar.

"The dollar may be carving out a peak, given Europe’s resilience to the energy shock and potential easing of lockdowns in China," said Commonwealth Bank of Australia strategist Joe Capurso.

"Given the type of policy support, we expect investment to rebound faster than consumer spending," he said. "Investment is mining commodity-intensive (and therefore) very positive for commodity currencies such as the Australian dollar and Canadian dollar, in addition to the yuan."

CHINA HOPE Shanghai is edging out of lockdown and an unexpectedly big rate cut in China last week has been taken a signal that authorities are going to provide support to a recovery.

The city of 25 million expects to lift its city-wide lockdown and return to more normal life from June 1.

The yuan CNY=CFXS had its best week since late 2020 last week and firmed to 6.6844 per dollar on Monday.

The Canadian dollar CAD=D3 rose for a third straight week last week and was up about 0.4% to C$1.2800 per dollar on Monday.

Sterling leapt nearly 2% last week on the back of stronger-than-expected retail data and markets' broader re-think on whether global central banks are really lagging much behind the Federal Reserve. It was last GBP=D3 up 0.4% at $1.2546.

Geopolitics are in focus in Asia this week as U.S. President Joe Biden tours the region, promoting greater U.S. economic engagement and seeking to push back against China's influence.

He met Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday ahead of meetings with the leaders of India and Australia in Tokyo this week.

Australia elected a new government on Saturday, though the market reaction was muted as polls had predicted victory for the centre-left Labor Party and it is not expected to shift the direction or pace of interest rate rises.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is expected to lift its benchmark cash rate by 50 basis points on Wednesday. U.S. Federal Reserve meeting minutes are also due on Wednesday.

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	Currency bid prices at 0454 GMT 

 Description	  RIC		 Last		   U.S. Close  Pct Change	 YTD Pct	 High Bid	Low Bid 
											  Previous				   Change				  
											  Session											
 Euro/Dollar	   EUR=EBS	$1.0590		$1.0569	 +0.21%		 +0.00%	  +1.0595	 +1.0559 
 Dollar/Yen		JPY=EBS	127.4050	   127.9100	-0.45%		 +0.00%	  +128.0500   +127.2900 
 Euro/Yen		 																			 
 Dollar/Swiss	  CHF=EBS	0.9717		 0.9743	  -0.26%		 +0.00%	  +0.9751	 +0.9713 
 Sterling/Dollar   GBP=D3	 1.2545		 1.2496	  +0.40%		 +0.00%	  +1.2553	 +1.2482 
 Dollar/Canadian   CAD=D3	 1.2801		 1.2846	  -0.36%		 +0.00%	  +1.2842	 +1.2794 
 Aussie/Dollar	 AUD=D3	 0.7090		 0.7052	  +0.54%		 +0.00%	  +0.7098	 +0.7046 
 NZ				NZD=D3	 0.6455		 0.6410	  +0.73%		 +0.00%	  +0.6467	 +0.6400 
 Dollar/Dollar																				   

All spots FX= Tokyo spots AFX= Europe spots EFX= Volatilities FXVOL= Tokyo Forex market info from BOJ TKYFX

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World FX rates	https://tmsnrt.rs/2RBWI5E 

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