The US dollar was rather strong today, though it was unable to outperform safer currencies like the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc. The greenback was also surprisingly weak against the Australian and New Zealand dollars intraday but managed to rebound by now.
One of the major reasons for the greenback’s strength was the hawkish stance of the Federal Reserve. The Fed minutes released yesterday showed that all voting members voted for the September interest rate hike unanimously, leading to speculations that the Fed will raise rates in December again, for a total four times this year. The CME FedWatch tool showed an 80% chance of such event.
Another reason for the dollars’ gains was relatively positive macroeconomic data released in the United States today. With falling unemployment claims and rising leading indicators, the US economy looked robust and attractive for investors.
EUR/USD dropped from 1.1500 to 1.1457 as of 17:53 GMT today after touching the daily high of 1.1527 earlier. GBP/USD declined from 1.3112 to 1.3020. USD/JPY tumbled from 112.63 to 112.00.
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