Dollar slips amid vaccine optimism

The US dollar slipped against most of its peers on Wednesday, despite the release of upbeat data, amid optimism following news about Covid-19 vaccines.

The US building permits index reached 1.55 million in October, lower than estimates of 1.57 million, while the housing starts index rose to 1.53 million units in October, beating forecasts of 1.45 million.

The American company Pfizer and the German firm BioNTech announced on Wednesday that the recent data from the final phase of the clinical trials on their Covid-19 vaccine showed it was 95% effective.

This came after Moderna announced on Monday that its coronavirus vaccine was more than 94.5% effective in preventing the disease.

The dollar index fell against a basket of major currencies by 0.1% to 92.3 points as of 19:11 GMT, after hitting a high of 92.5 points and a low of 92.2 points.