The U.S. dollar and currency-related exchange traded funds continued to weaken Wednesday, prolonging the worst losing streak for the greenback since 2013, after government data revealed the economy nearly stalled in the first quarter.
The PowerShares DB U.S. Dollar Index Bullish Fund (NYSEArca: UUP), which tracks the U.S. dollar movements against the euro, Japanese yen, British pound, Canadian dollar, Swedish krona and Swiss franc, was down 1.3% Wednesday after declining 2.1% over the past week. Investors also pulled $30.9 million from UUP over the past week, according to ETF.com.
The actively managed WisdomTree Bloomberg U.S. Dollar Bullish Fund (NYSEArca: USDU), which tracks the USD against a broader basket of developed and emerging market currencies, was 0.8% lower Wednesday after falling off 1.8% over the past week.
Meanwhile, the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bearish Fund (NYSEArca: UDN), which takes the inverse or short performance of the U.S. dollar against the same basket of six major currencies as UUP, was up 1.2% Wednesday and gained 2.1% over the past week.
Economic data that showed the U.S. economy expanded a weaker-than-expected 0.2%, extending losses in the greenback Wednesday to its longest losing streak since August 2013, reports Rachel Evans for Bloomberg.
“It was a disappointing number and the dollar is weaker,” Eric Viloria, a strategist at Wells Fargo & Co. in New York, said in the article “It does create a little more uncertainty and it does restrain the dollar a little bit.”
The economic weakness pushed back expectations for an Federal Reserve interest rate hike, a leading factor for continued strength in the U.S. dollar. The central bank has been closely monitoring economic activity as it plans to hike rates for the first time since 2006