The US dollar gained against the basket of major currencies today (though fell versus the Japanese yen) amid speculations that the Federal Reserve is going to raise interest rates next week. Positive macroeconomic data also provided support to the US currency.
With the unexpectedly big jump of the Empire State Manufacturing Index, the increase of both import and export prices, and the drop of jobless claims, the vast majority of Thursday’s economic reports were positive. The only exception was the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index that declined more than was expected. The net long-term securities transactions figure will be released as of 20:00 GMT today.
The Fed will conduct a policy meeting next week and will announce its decision on March 21. According to the CME FedWatch, the probability of an interest rate hike is higher than 90%.
The Bloomberg Spot Dollar Index rose 0.36% today.
EUR/USD dropped from 1.2368 to 1.2317 as of 16:33 GMT today. AUD/USD slumped from 0.7874 to 0.7807. USD/JPY declined from 106.31 to 106.13, though bounced from the daily low of 105.78.
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