US dollar enjoys brief bounce after Fed minutes
Daily Currency Update
Demand for the US dollar advanced across the board after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting showed that some policymaker's commitments to accommodative monetary policy was beginning to falter.Analysts had expected the meeting to affirm the Fed’s commitment to maintaining the current policy platform and a collective will to look through transitory inflation pressures. Instead, several members suggested it may be appropriate to 'begin discussing' tapering bond purchases.
Markets jumped on the shift in tone, pushing 10-year treasury yields toward 1.70% while driving a half percent increase in the US Dollar Index. But the bounce was short-lived. The dollar index, which measures demand for USD against a basket of currencies, was down 0.3% at 89.92 this morning.
Key Movers
The euro and the pound recovered slightly today after drifting lower yesterday, as investor reaction to the Fed’s meeting minutes drove up demand for the US dollar. EURUSD and GBPUSD were both up around 0.2% this morning at 1.220 and 1.415 respectively. Attention now turns to a host of European and US PMI data prints on Friday. PMI data provides a valuable insight into input costs and potential ongoing inflation pressures.The AUD fell nearly 1% yesterday as commodity prices came under pressure following commentary from China, wherein it warned about the current outperformance and called for stricter market oversight. Copper fell some 3% while oil gave up 5%, forcing the AUD toward 0.7750. The Fed’s meeting minutes drove the USD higher and drove the AUD down toward intraday lows at 0.7710. AUDUSD was up 0.5% at 0.7763 this morning.
Despite domestic data showing inflation climbing at the fastest pace in 10 years and a higher unemployment rate in April, the Canadian dollar continued to outperform its G10 peers for the month.
Expected Ranges
- EUR/USD: 1.216 - 1.222 ▲
- GBP/USD: 1.410 - 1.417 ▲
- AUD/USD: 0.771 - 0.777 ▲
- USD/CAD: 1.207 - 1.214 ▼