Dollar Remains Lower on US Government Shutdown

The dollar remained lower against other major currencies on Friday, as investors were still worried after the US Government approved a bill to end a government shutdown.

The Senate passed a 2-year bipartisan budget bill early Friday, sending the legislation to US President Donald Trump for his signature.

The bill passed in a 240-186 vote, though there were still oppositions from most Democrats. Despite the late-night sessions, policymakers were still unable to avoid a 2nd government shutdown in less than a month.

Moreover, the midnight deadline to pass the budget bill was missed on Thursday due to a prolonged speech by Senator Rand Paul. Paul objected that the $300 billion in deficit spending in the bill would “loot the treasure.”

“What you’re seeing is recklessness trying to be passed off as bipartisanship,” Paul said in a Senate floor speech.

Paul used Senate rules to delay a vote in the Senate until early Friday morning, angering his colleagues in the process.

During an exchange on the Senate floor, the No. 2 Senate Republican, Senator John Cornyn, accused Paul of pushing to “effectively shut down the federal government for no real reason.”

“I don’t know why we are basically burning time here while the senator from Kentucky and others are sitting in the cloakroom wasting everybody’s time and inconveniencing the staff,” said Cornyn.

The bill passed by the Senate will boost federal spending for both defense and non-defense programs by $300 billion over the next 2 years. It will also suspend the debt ceiling for 1 year.

Additionally, the bill includes other priorities for both parties, including $90 billion for disaster relief, $6 billion to address the opioid crisis, a 4-year extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and more than $7 billion for community health centers.

Measuring the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of 6 major currencies, the US dollar index was slightly changed at 90.13, off the previous session’s two-and-a-half week high of 90.46.

The euro was up 0.16% at 1.2267 against the dollar, and the British pound rose 0.09% to 1.3925 against the greenback.

The Australian dollar added 0.44% at 0.7798 against the greenback, and the New Zealand dollar edged up 0.12% to 0.7225. The US dollar was lower against the Canadian dollar, sliding 0.10% at 1.2581.

However, the US dollar rose 0.27% at 109.03 against the Japanese yen, and the greenback gained 0.25% to 0.9385 against the Swiss Franc. 

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