Early trade in New York: dollar gains in NY as steep global economic slump looms

The dollar advanced on Wednesday, with markets staring at what looked likely to be one of the worst economic contractions in decades as the world confronts the coronavirus pandemic.
The greenback rose against the euro, sterling and most other major currencies as selling in global shares highlighted growing risks from the pandemic that has shown little sign of easing.
The dollar's status as the world's reserve currency makes it a natural safe haven, as evidence builds of a massive global economic downturn.
"We saw broad dollar-buying flows into month-end, but today's flows are more haven-like," said Erik Bregar, head of FX strategy at Exchange Bank of Canada in Toronto.
In mid-morning trading, the US dollar index was up 0.6% at 99.550. It remained below multi-year peaks reached last month, before the Federal Reserve pumped more dollars into the system.
US data showing private sector jobs lost for the month of March were much lower than expected, did not really change sentiment, as the survey was conducted in mid-March and did not really capture the full impact of the coronavirus.
The euro fell nearly 1% against the dollar, dropping to $1.0924.
A slew of currencies - including the Australian, New Zealand and Canadian dollars, along with the South African rand - were down around 1% versus the greenback. Sterling fared slightly better, last down 0.4% at $1.2370.
Against the safe-haven yen, however, the dollar was down 0.3% at 107.29 yen. But yen strength may not last long as Japan is also reeling from the crisis.