The dollar fell to an 18-month low against major currencies, amid encouraging signs for global growth and laxity on the part of the Fed.
The dollar is struggling. While the US Federal Reserve (Fed) maintains its accommodative monetary policy and some signals are turning green on the economic front, particularly in China, the US currency is sinking to its lowest level in 18 months against other major currencies, forex traders preferring to abandon the greenback. Against the euro, the dollar fell 0.17% to $1.1985 per euro, its lowest in three months. "The weakness of the dollar is due to positive indicators for global growth, which combine with signals sent by the Fed that monetary policy will remain loose until the recovery is well underway," Hardman said. analyst at MUFG.

Manufacturing activity in China reached its highest level in more than three years in November, confirming the recovery in activity in the country. The official purchasing managers' index (PMI) for the month of November stood at 52.1 points against 51.4 the previous month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on Monday. The losses of the dollar, significant since the beginning of November, were however moderate on this beginning of the last session of the month.

For the euro-dollar pair, foreign exchange traders are watching the symbolic threshold of 1.20 dollars per euro (EUR/USD or euro/dollar), which has only been crossed for one session in September since mid-2018. This threshold "has a particular importance", stressed commerzbank analyst Ulrich Leuchtmann who recalls that the chief economist of the European Central Bank (ECB) Philip Lane had said that the institution did not have an exchange rate target but that the euro-dollar rate was important. "The ECB's meeting on 10 September is approaching, and its president Christine Lagarde is due to speak today and tomorrow," Leuchtmann said.