Dollar is flat waiting for Fed representatives to speak
2023.02.20 02:17
Dollar is flat waiting for Fed representatives to speak
By Ray Johnson
Budrigannews.com – On Monday, markets awaited additional monetary policy signals from several Federal Reserve speakers and data sets due later in the week. While the dollar held steady, most Asian currencies moved little.
Fears of further monetary policy tightening by the Fed returned to the forefront, and regional currencies were still reeling from the hotter-than-expected U.S. from the previous week.
In response to strong inflationary signals and hawkish comments from Fed officials, the dollar rose slightly against a basket of currencies, maintaining most of its gains from the previous week.
The and were trading at six-week highs and each gained less than 1%.
This week, the focus is on the Fed’s meeting in February, which is expected to shed more light on the hawkish rhetoric of the central bank on Wednesday. This week also includes and Fed officials scheduled to speak.
The Fed has enough economic leeway to keep raising rates, as evidenced by data showing higher-than-anticipated inflation and robust job growth in the United States.
Markets are currently debating where the year’s peak might be, with some analysts warning that interest rates could rise above 6%.
This week, Japan’s monetary policy is also the focus, with the yen moving little on Monday. On Friday, the newly appointed head of the Bank of Japan (BOJ), Kazuo Ueda, is anticipated to give a testimony that will provide additional insight into the BOJ’s
Was the People’s Bank for the sixth month in a row. As the nation emerges from three years of COVID lockdowns, the move suggested that Beijing intends to maintain policy accommodativeness sufficient to support economic growth.
For the larger Asian markets that rely on China as a trading destination, a recovery in China bodes well. However, the economic picture that has been released up to this point has been mediocre.
On Monday, Southeast Asian currencies gained, despite suffering significant losses from the previous week. The gained 0.7 percent and was the day’s best performer.
