An employee holds U.S. dollar bank notes at a money changer in Jakarta, Indonesia, April 9, 2025. Photo by Reuters
The U.S. dollar strengthened to a new all-time high against the Vietnamese dong Wednesday morning, surpassing the peak hit on the previous day.
Vietcombank sold the currency at a record VND26,500, up 0.04% from Tuesday’s VND26,490. On the black market, the greenback gained 0.03% to around VND26,595.
The State Bank of Vietnam hiked its reference rate by 0.03% to VND25,263.
Globally, the U.S. dollar gained for a third straight session on Wednesday as traders awaited Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s speech in Jackson Hole this week for clues on the path of monetary policy, Reuters reported.
“Given the relatively high bar for Powell to meet, there’s a bit of risk being baked into the markets that he leans to the hawkish side and the proverbial rug gets pulled from beneath investors,” said Kyle Rodda, an analyst at Capital.com. Powell’s speech is set for Friday.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the currency against six major counterparts, added 0.1% to 98.438, its highest since Aug. 12. In the first two days of this week, it gained about 0.4%.
The dollar advanced 0.1% to 0.80885 Swiss franc, though it edged slightly lower to 147.56 yen. The euro eased 0.2% to $1.1626, and sterling slipped 0.2% to $1.3463.
The kiwi slumped as much as 0.9% to $0.5841, its lowest since April 14 while Australia’s dollar declined 0.3% to $0.6435, its weakest since Aug. 1.
