The US dollar has officially given up all its postelection gains

pulse

May 18, 2017 1:27 PM

The US dollar has officially given up all its postelection gains.

The dollar has officially given up all its postelection gains.

The US dollar index was little changed at 97.62 as of 8:01 a.m. ET on Thursday.

The index closed at 97.861 on November 8, the day of the US presidential election.

Still, the dollar appears to be taking a breather Thursday after weakening Wednesday.

"Yesterday's dramatic response to the political maelstrom in Washington is over. The appointment of [Robert Mueller as] special counsel to head up the FBI's investigation into Russia's attempt to influence the US election appears to have acted a circuit breaker of sorts," Marc Chandler, the global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman, said.

"It is not sufficient to boost confidence that the Trump Administration's economic program is back [on] the front burners, but it is sufficient to stem the time for the moment."

<data-term="goog_500088786">Looking forward, House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz has invited former FMI director James Comey to testify next Wednesday.

"Media commentary regarding Comey's memo suggests that markets will expect bad news. Hence we believe the USD will remain under pressure ahead of this event," a Morgan Stanley FX team led by strategist Hans W. Redeker said in a note.

"Should Comey not bring any new information to the table then the USD will rally. If, however, Comey does bring hard evidence then the potential risk is the markets believing the situation could evolve into a possible lame duck environment," they added.

The greenback climbed to a 13-year high after US President Donald Trump won the election in early November, and it hit 103.01 in December. At least part of that appreciation was attributed to markets reacting to Trump's proposed fiscal-policy initiatives. But the index has been slowly giving up those gains over the past few months.

As for the rest of the world, here's the scoreboard as of 8:08 a.m. ET:

pulse