Dollar heads for largest weekly loss since 2009

The US dollar fell against against a basket of its peers on Friday, to deepen its losses for the fourth straight day and hit nearly 2-week low, on the cusp of largest weekly loss since 2009, as investors stopped hoarding cash following a huge US stimulus package.

The dollar index fell 0.6% to the lowest since March 17 at 98.84 points, after opening at 99.24 points, and hit today's high at 99.35.

The index fell 1.5% yesterday, its third straight daily loss, on sell-off after the release of a shocking weekly US jobless claims data.

The US Department of Labor revealed that the jobless claims rose by 3.001 million to the all-time largest reading of 3.283 million during the past week, which came due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The dollar index has dropped 3% during this week, to head for its first weekly loss in 3 weeks, and the largest since May 2009.

This weekly loss is the worst for the greenback in nearly 11 years, which came after investors stopped hoarding cash following successive stimulus measures in the US, leading to increased demand for high-yield assets, led by stocks and bonds.

The Federal Reserve announced on Monday an open quantitative easing program, which is aimed at easing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The US senate passed the huge $2 trillion US stimulus package, which is aimed at providing support for the most affected US sectors by the pandemic, and the bill was transferred to the House of Representatives for a vote later today.