US Dollar Gains Ahead of Jobs Report on Friday

The U.S. dollar was firmer against most major currencies with the exception of the Japanese yen, which benefited from haven demand amid heightened geopolitical risks in Asia and Europe.

The ICE Dollar Index DXY, +0.14%  was trading nearly unchanged at 101.48.

Last week, after several key Federal Reserve officials confirmed that the central bank is likely to raise rates at the next policy meeting on March 15, the dollar rallied to hit a two-month high. When Fed chair Janet Yellen all but confirmed a March rate hike in commentary on Friday, the dollar weakened on what some analysts called “profit taking.”

“There was a typical “buy the rumor (that Yellen would confirm what nearly all of the other Fed officials have been saying) sell the fact (when she did)” activity in a relatively thinly participated Friday afternoon in North America,” wrote Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman in emailed notes.

“The dollar had moved higher for several sessions in a row, and the market had priced in a March hike by nearly as much as it could,” Chandler said.

On Monday, the dollar was stronger against the euro and the British pound, though Chandler said not to put too much stress on today’s moves as the key events and data that will impact currencies will be coming later this week, including a nonfarm payrolls reading on Friday.

via MarketWatch

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.

Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency
trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza