By Gina Lee

Investing.com – The dollar was up on Wednesday morning in Asia. The overnight surges in trading gave rise to early trading. This was in addition to strong U.K. job data, an improvement in investor sentiment and positive U.S. retail data. There are also hopes that China will relax COVID-19 lockdowns.

This chart tracks the greenback’s performance against a basket currency by 0.07% at 1:22 AM ET (5.22 AM GMT).

This pair fell 0.15% to 129.19

While the pair fell 0.07%, 0.7024 was a slight improvement. The pair rose 0.06% to 6.365.

Both the pair edged up 0.1% to 6.7488, while the pair slid down 0.3% to 1.2486.

In early Asia trade the euro reached $1.0563 after it rose 1.1% overnight. It was also its highest day of percentage gains in March. Following a 1.4% overnight rally that saw the currency reach $1.2501, it was its highest level since late 2020. The data showed that the U.K. had a 48-year high unemployment rate.

The dollar index fell to the lowest level in almost two weeks due to these gains.

“The pound got a boost from the very strong jobs report yesterday, and on top of that, there has been a slight improvement in the broader risk sentiment in financial markets driven by some positive news out of China on the lockdowns and strong data out of the U.S.,” Commonwealth Bank Of Australia currency strategist Carol Kong told Reuters.

The Chinese city of Shanghai on Tuesday hit a long-awaited milestone of three consecutive days with no new COVID-19 cases outside quarantine zones, with authorities setting out the city’s clearest timetable to date for exiting a lockdown the day before.

Data shows that U.S. retail sales grew strongly in April 2022 with core retail sales increasing 0.6%. Retail sales rose 0.9% month on month, and by 8.19% year over year. Data also revealed that industrial production increased 6.4% and 1.1% respectively month-onmonth.

Equities soared overnight due to the improvement in risk sentiment. U.S. benchmark Treasury yields showed an upward trend and last hit the 2.9878% mark. Due to Japan’s sensitiveness to U.S. interest rates, the recent recovery of the yen was also ended by the higher U.S. yields.

Jerome Powell, the Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve said Tuesday at an event hosted by Wall Street Journal that the Fed would “keep pushing” for tighter monetary policy to ensure that there is no sign that inflation has slowed.

The riskier Australian currency was on an uptrend, buoyed by improved risk perception and extended a 0.8% increase on Tuesday. It was also helped by the Reserve Bank of Australia’s latest meeting minutes, published on Tuesday and hinting that the central bank will hike interest rates again when it meets in June 2022.

Markets for cryptocurrencies were calm, bitcoin was little affected at just $30,400.