US dollar rises as coronavirus fears ease  

The US dollar rose as investors expressed confidence that the novel coronavirus outbreak will be contained soon.

In late New York trading on Wednesday, the euro was down to $1.0868 from $1.0920 in the previous session, and the British pound was down to $1.2958 from $1.2961 in the previous session. The Australian dollar rose to $0.6735 from $0.6713, Xinhua reported.

The US dollar bought 110.08 Japanese yen, higher than 109.75 Japanese yen of the previous session. The US dollar was up to 0.9783 Swiss franc from 0.9754 Swiss franc, and it fell to 1.3259 Canadian dollars from 1.3290 Canadian dollars.

The number of novel coronavirus cases dropped for the second consecutive days on Tuesday in China, according to China's National Health Commission on Wednesday.

Traditional safe-haven currencies Japanese yen and Swiss franc weakened against the greenback.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, rose 0.32 per cent at 99.0435 in late trading.-IANS