China's yuan hovered at a three-week high against the dollar on Monday
November 18, 2021
China's yuan hovered at a three-week high against the dollar on Monday on rising hopes for an improvement in Sino-U.S. relations, while sightly better-than-expected October activity indicators also lent support to the local currency.
Traders said the main focus would be a virtual meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and his counterpart Xi Jinping on Tuesday, with some investors raising their bets for partial removal of tariffs.
"If Sino-U.S. relations improve further, the yuan will continue strengthening," said Li Liuyang, chief currency analyst at China Merchants Bank, though he added that 6.35 per dollar could provide strong resistance for the yuan in the near-term.
Prior to market opening, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) set the midpoint rate CNY=PBOC at 6.3896 per dollar, 169 pips or 0.26% firmer than the previous fix of 6.4065, the strongest since Oct. 27.
The firmer official guidance pushed the yuan's value against it major trading partners .CFSCNYI to 101.33, the highest level since Dec. 18, 2015, according to Reuters calculations based on official data.
