Dollar firms at nine-week high as rally continues

An employee counts U.S. banknotes at a bank in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Tung

The U.S. dollar rose against the Vietnamese dong Friday morning to the highest since Nov. 4, having surged non-stop in five days.

Vietcombank sold the dollar at VND24,690, up 0.22% from Thursday.

The State Bank of Vietnam kept its reference rate unchanged at VND23,976.

The dollar was stable at VND24,850 on the black market.

It has increased against the dong by 1.11% since the beginning of the year.

Globally the dollar held steady against peer currencies on Friday, as investors weighed higher-than-expected U.S. consumer price inflation against market bets that the Federal Reserve will cut rates as soon as March, Reuters reported.

U.S. consumer prices increased in December as rents maintained their upward trend, edging 0.3% higher for the month and up an annual 3.4%, versus economists’ forecast in a Reuters poll for a 0.2% gain and 3.2% rise, respectively.

The dollar index was hovering around 102.26, down from Thursday’s high of 102.76 but well ahead of the five-month low of 100.61 hit in December when traders began to aggressively price in a raft of Fed cuts for this year.