The dollar began the week on a firm footing, inching toward a milestone peak against the euro on Monday, as a cautious market mood pushed investors to safety while U.S. economic strength and a rapid vaccine rollout also added to the greenbacks shine.

The euro was down 0.1 in the Asia session at 1.1783, not far above last weeks fourandahalfmonth trough of 1.1762 and well below its 200day moving average of about 1.1866.

The common currency is headed for its worst month since mid2019 as Europes faltering vaccination programme runs into a wave of new infections, a bearish signal as positioning data shows investors remain heavily long euros.

The euro has continued to fall … even as longterm U.S. yields have lost some upward momentum, analysts at MUFG Bank said in a note. It suggests euro weakness was driven more by concerns over the weakening outlook for growth in the eurozone in light of rising COVID cases.

Virusdriven caution also helped the dollar higher against the Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar and sterling and it rose against oilliked currencies as the refloating of the ship blocking the Suez Canal pushed crude prices down by about 1.5.

Concern in equity markets at the widening fallout from a wave of liquidations linked to investment fund Archegos Capital also put investors in a careful mindset.

Only the safehaven Japanese yen made headway, scraping from a 10month low it made on Friday to inch about 0.2 higher to 109.43 though along with the Swiss franc…