The U.S. Dollar Index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies was up 0.29% to 95.870
The dollar was up on Monday morning in Asia, but holidays in many key Asia Pacific markets meant that it had a quiet start to 2022.
The U.S. Dollar Index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies was up 0.29% to 95.870 by 3:56am GMT.
The USD/JPY pair was up 0.19% to 115.30.
The AUD/USD pair inched down 0.13% to 0.7250 while the NZD/USD pair edged up 0.09% to 0.6830.
The USD/CNY pair was steady at 6.3561 and the GBP/USD pair was down 0.21% to 1.3501.
The Japanese, Chinese, Australian, and New Zealand markets were all closed for a holiday, and the thin trade could make it more difficult to see the dollar’s real moves.
The global spread of the omicron COVID-19 variant also continues to impact on sentiment. Although the number of cases in the western Chinese city of Xi’an edged down, Johns Hopkins University data showed that the global number of cases topped 290 million as of Jan. 3.
Meanwhile, China Evergrande Group’s Hong Kong shares were suspended from trading earlier in the day, with the property developer declining to provide a reason for the suspension.
However, Chinese property developer Cifi Holdings offered to buy China Evergrande’s outstanding 5.5% bond due in 2022. The offer was $1,000.5 for each $1,000 in principal amount plus accrued and unpaid interest, according to Cifi Holdings’ statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange. The offer to buy the $505.1 million of notes that remain outstanding expires at 4pm GMT on Jan. 7.
Investors also await China’s Caixin manufacturing and service purchasing managers indexes, due later in the week.
