USD Higher As Fed and ECB Comments Boost Currency

The dollar rose to its highest in more than a week on Wednesday on outlooks for U.S. and European interest rates and as investors saw the selloff on U.S. President Donald Trump’s healthcare setback as overdone.

Reuters reported European Central Bank policymakers were wary of changing their policy message after tweaks this month upset investors and raised chances of a surge in borrowing costs. The euro fell to $1.0741 following the report, its lowest since March 21. That propelled the dollar index , which tracks the greenback against a basket of rival currencies, to 100.130, its highest since March 21.

The dollar also got a boost from Chicago Fed President Charles Evans, who said he was in line with most of his colleagues in supporting further rate hikes this year. Evans is known as one of the Fed’s most consistent supporters of low interest rates. The dollar fell to its lowest in four months on Friday after the U.S. House of Representatives pulled a bill to rewrite the American healthcare system backed by President Donald Trump. Investors saw it as an indication Trump was likely to have difficulty with other parts of his agenda including tax reform and fiscal spending that are likely to increase U.S. inflation.

Those fears may have been overdone, analysts said, and with Fed officials still lining up to support further interest rate hikes, the dollar is on solid footing.

“The selloff in the dollar that we saw in reaction to the news Friday was probably a bit of an overreaction,” said Shaun Osborne, currency strategist at Scotia Capital in Toronto. “The underlying faith in the reflation trade is coming back a little bit today.”

via Kitco

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.