Dollar remains steady at 3-month low against dong

Vietcombank sold the dollar at VND25,400, the same rate as on Thursday. The greenback slid 0.12% to VND25,700 on the black market.

The State Bank of Vietnam lowered its reference rate by 0.01% to VND24,242.

The dollar has increased against the dong by 4.01% since the beginning of the year.

Globally, the safe-haven Japanese yen and Swiss franc traded near multi-month highs against the dollar on Friday after an unexpected slump in U.S. manufacturing fuelled fears of a downturn, sending stocks and bond yields tumbling, Reuters reported.

The yen was steady at 149.49 per dollar, after strengthening as far as 148.51 overnight for the first time since mid-March.

The franc gained about 0.1% to 0.87225 per dollar, and earlier reached its highest since early February at 0.8722.

The U.S. economic outlook faces a crucial test later Friday, with the release of monthly payroll figures.

“Rate cut pricing seems a little excessive,” said Shinichiro Kadota, a currency and rates strategist at Barclays in Tokyo, who forecasts two 25 bps cuts in 2024.

“The risk, if anything, is that the U.S. data starts to stabilise, or sentiment starts to stabilize, and those cuts get priced out, which should lead to some recovery in the dollar.”

The euro was flat at $1.0793, after reaching a three-week low of $1.07775 overnight.