Asian session review: the US dollar has stabilized against major currencies

During today's Asian trading, the U.S. dollar consolidated near a multi-month high against other major currencies as investors bet on fiscal stimulus and aggressive vaccination that will help the United States grow faster than other economies.

The ICE index, which tracks the dollar's performance against six currencies (euro, Swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, pound sterling and Swedish krona), rose 0.04%, to 93.26, close to a five-month high of 93.439 reached on Wednesday.

The rise came as the euro, the largest component of the index, suffers from concerns that the euro zone's economic recovery is being hampered by a third wave of COVID-19 contagion.

President Emmanuel Macron ordered France to impose a third national blockade and said schools would close for three weeks, while the currency bloc also lags behind the United States in vaccination programs.

"The dollar's growth is likely to slow down, but the dollar's propensity to strengthen is still there," said Masaru Ishibashi, joint general manager of trading at Sumitomo Mitsui Bank.

The dollar rose 0.05% against the yen, reaching its highest level in a year. "Yen-selling due to Japanese companies' foreign direct investment is coming back after a slowdown due to the pandemic last year," said Yujiro Goto, chief FX strategist at Nomura Securities.

U.S. President Joe Biden announced his long awaited $2 trillion-plus job plan, including $621 billion to rebuild infrastructure. But the effort sets the stage for the next partisan clash in the Congress where members are divided on the total size and inclusion of programmes traditionally seen as social services.