The Chinese yuan is driving currency gains ahead of the US trade agreement

The Chinese yuan led the bullish trend of currencies affected by trade on Monday, while the Australian dollar offset some of its recent losses as the initial signing of a China-US trade agreement neared sentiment, boosting sentiment.
Chinese yuan banknotes in an illustration from Reuters archives

The one-stage agreement between the United States and China, signed at the White House on Wednesday, is a first step toward ending the devastating 18-month trade dispute between the world's two largest economies.

The recovery of the yen, which hit a multi-year low in September, reflects growing investor confidence in passing the worst stages of the trade war.

And the yuan in foreign trade exceeded 6.9 against the dollar, to record a new high in five and a half months at 6.8944 against the dollar, up 0.3 percent against the US currency during Monday.

The Australian dollar, which had worried about the economic damage caused by forest fires in the country, rose 0.3 percent to a one-week high of $ 0.6919.

The New Zealand dollar rose 0.2 percent to its highest level since Thursday, 0.6650 US dollars.

The Japanese currency fell 0.1 percent to 109.65 yen to the dollar, approaching the lowest level in seven months, and fell 0.6 percent to the lowest level in eight months against the Korean won, heavily affected by trade. And a holiday in Japan reduced the volume of trading as a whole.

And the pound fell to 1.2995 dollars and against the euro to 85.62 pence.
The euro remained in the $ 1.1125 range.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six competing currencies, rose 0.1 percent to 97.417.