By Stanley White
TOKYO (Reuters) - The dollar's gains were put on hold on Wednesday as optimism about a coronavirus vaccine was offset by worries about how the drug will be delivered and by a surge of new infections in the United States.
The New Zealand dollar is in focus ahead of a central bank meeting later on Wednesday that may shed light on whether policymakers will adopt negative interest rates.
Initial optimism about coronavirus vaccine testing pushed the dollar up against the safe-harbour yen and the Swiss franc, but this momentum is starting to fade because there are still several obstacles to clear before a vaccine can be distributed.
"The dollar recovery is on hold for now because, when you look at the details, there are still a lot of hurdles to clear before any vaccine is rolled out," said Junichi Ishikawa, senior foreign exchange strategist at IG Securities in Tokyo.
"However, the dollar is supported by rising Treasury yields, which should help the dollar make another push higher before year's end."
The dollar was last quoted at 105.23 yen
Against the euro (EUR=D3), the dollar was little changed at $1.1820.
The British pound
Sterling also held on to overnight gains against the euro (EURGBP=).
Sentiment for the dollar got a boost after Pfizer Inc (N:PFE) and BioNTech (DE:22UAy) said on Monday their experimental coronavirus vaccine was 90% effective.
However, the reaction across financial markets has become more tempered because there are several logistical hurdles to making the drug available, including that it has to be shipped at extremely cold temperatures.
Several U.S. states on Tuesday imposed restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus as hospitalizations soared, highlighting the difficulty in containing the virus as winter in the Northern Hemisphere approaches.
The dollar index (=USD) against a basket of six major currencies was little changed at 92.729.
Elsewhere in currencies, the New Zealand dollar
The central bank is expected to hold rates at 0.25% and introduce a new monetary policy tool to drive borrowing costs lower for lenders.
Across the Tasman Sea, the Australian dollar
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Currency bid prices at 9:05AM (0005 GMT)
Description RIC Last U.S. Close Pct Change YTD Pct High Bid Low Bid
Previous Change
Session
Euro/Dollar (EUR=EBS) $1.1820 $1.1812 +0.07% +5.43% +1.1822 +1.1812
Dollar/Yen
Euro/Yen (EURJPY=) 124.37 124.36 +0.01% +1.98% +124.4600 +124.3800
Dollar/Swiss
Sterling/Dollar
Dollar/Canadian
Aussie/Dollar
NZ
Dollar/Dollar
All spots
Tokyo spots
Europe spots
Volatilities
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