Dollar jumps to 10-week high

Vietcombank sold the dollar at VND23,960 Friday, up 0.5% from Thursday, highest since December 8.

The rate at Techcombank was VND23,930, up 0.25%, and at ACB VND24,000, up 0.42%.

Eximbank sold the greenback at VND23,780, unchanged from Thursday.

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) raised its reference rate up 0.01% to VND23,639.

Unofficial exchange points sold the greenback 0.04% lower at VND23,685.

The dollar has gained over the dong by 0.97% since the beginning of the year.

Globally the dollar hit a six-week high against a basket of currencies as a bout of resilient economic data out of the United States raised market expectations that more interest rate hikes were in the offing, Reuters reported.

The U.S. dollar index rose to a fresh six-week top of 104.31 and was on track for a third straight week of gains.

Data on Thursday showed that the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, while other data revealed that monthly producer prices increased by the most in seven months in January.

“The U.S. economy, from recent data, shows that it’s still healthy. It doesn’t seem to be going into a recession any time soon,” said Tina Teng, market analyst at CMC Markets.

Against the Japanese yen, the dollar jumped to a new six-week peak of 134.69 and was eyeing a weekly gain of nearly 2.5%, its best week since last August.

Elsewhere, the Aussie slid 0.46% to $0.6848, languishing near Thursday’s more than one-month low of $0.68405.