Narrow trading range for USD, just under 12-week high

08 Feb 2024

The Dollar was trading in a narrow range on Thursday, just under a 12-week top, as traders processed policymakers' comments from the prior session.

Indeed, a number of Federal Reserve speakers outlined a series of motives for feeling very little haste to begin easing policy in the US shortly, Reuters reports.

"Central banks need to be convinced that, not only will inflation come down, but that it will stay down," according to senior economist at Mizuho, Colin Asher.

As it stands, the market is pricing in under a 20% chance the US central bank will start easing rates next month, a considerable decline from the beginning of the year, and almost a 60% probability of a 25-basis point cut in May, according to the CME Group's FedWatch Tool.

The Dollar index, measuring the greenback against six peers, was up 0.1% at the time of writing to 104.14, just under Monday's mid-November high of 104.60, after soaring following last Friday's US jobs report.

"Now that the dust has settled on non-farms, I think what we are seeing is a recalibration of the rates outlook through to next year which has lifted the Dollar into a range that is a level higher," stated Kyle Chapman, FX markets analyst at Ballinger & Co.

The Dollar has been boosted by higher US Treasury yields, especially against the Japanese Yen.

In China, the Yuan held steady, despite China's consumer prices falling at their sharpest pace in over 14 years last month.

The offshore Chinese Yuan was predominantly flat at 7.2100 per Dollar, while the onshore Yuan stood at 7.1962, the Reuters report adds.

Indeed, the Yen was down around 0.5% against the Dollar on Thursday to 148.84, not far from its weakest point since 14 November.

Elsewhere, there was little change for the Euro at $1.0768 on Thursday, remaining above its lowest point since mid-November hit on Tuesday. Whilst there was hardly any change for Sterling at $1.2619.