The dollar remained weak versus the euro on Friday as traders continued to speculate that the Federal Reserve is going to postpone the planned interest rate hike. Yet such speculations did not prevent the dollar from bouncing versus the Great Britain pound and from gaining on the Japanese yen.
The Fed minutes, released yesterday, had been supportive for the dollar initially. This did not last long, though, as traders digested the news and decided that the tone of the statement was dovish enough to think that the central bank is not ready to hike rates this year.
Dennis Lockhart, President of the Atlanta Fed, was speaking today, and he said:
I believe the economy remains on a satisfactory track, and, speaking for myself, I see a liftoff decision later this year at the October or December FOMC meetings as likely appropriate.
Yet he also noted:
However, the data are giving off varied signals, and there is more ambiguity in the current moment than a few weeks ago.
It looks like market participants were not convinced, thus the dollar has failed to beat the very strong euro. Nevertheless, the US currency managed to gain not only on the weak yen, but also on the pound, which had been demonstrating resilience previously.
EUR/USD gained from 1.1276 to settle at 1.1355. GBP/USD went down from 1.5346 to 1.5318. USD/JPY advanced from 119.91 to 120.23.
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