Investing.com – The dollar was up on Friday morning in Asia. Investors turned to the safe-haven asset as the U.S. reported over 60,000 COVID-19 cases on Thursday, and dampened hopes of an economic recovery.
The U.S accounts for over 3.1 million of all cases. There are over 12.2 million cases and 550,000 deaths globally as of July 10, according to John Hopkins University data. Some states, including Florida, Texas and California, reported a record number of new cases on Thursday.
“The market was in a mild risk-off mood, following pretty bad [COVD-19] figures from Florida,” Kyosuke Suzuki, director of currencies at Societe Generale (OTC:SCGLY), told Reuters.
The U.S. Dollar Index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies gained 0.13% to 96.802 by 10:06 AM ET (3:06 AM GMT).
Another event giving the dollar a boost was Thursday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing prosecutors access to U.S. President Donald Trump’s financial record. The ruling dealt a blow to Trump’s battle to keep the details of his finances under wraps and is an unwelcome surprise to his for re-election in November.
The USD/JPY pair was down 0.17% to 107.
The risk-linked Antipodean currencies gave up their gains from the previous day, with the AUD/USD pair down 0.22% to 0.56947 and the NZD/USD pair falling 0.10% to 0.6562.
The USD/CNY pair gained 0.12% to 7.0004, and the GBP/USD pair fell 0.07% to 1.2595.