Forex Today: US Dollar firmer ahead of Fed’s favorite inflation gauge
What you need to take care of on Friday, March 28:
The US Dollar surged on Thursday, helped by hawkish comments from Federal Reserve (Fed) official Waller, who suggested the central bank may keep rates at current restrictive levels for longer. Near-term bond yields advanced, while stock markets also maintained the positive momentum.
European Central Bank (ECB) Board member Fabio Panetta repeated that the risks to price stability in the Euro Zone are diminishing, materializing the conditions for starting to ease monetary policy. Several ECB officials have hinted at a rate cut in June, aligned with President Christine Lagarde.
United States (US) data was generally encouraging. The final estimate of the Q4 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was upwardly revised to 3.4% from the previous 3.2% estimate. Additionally, the country released Initial Jobless Claims for the week ended March 22, which came in better than anticipated at 210K. Finally, the March Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index was upwardly revised to 79.4, much better than the preliminary estimate of 76.5, while Pending Home Sales were up 1.6% MoM in February, beating expectations.
Most markets will remain closed on Friday amid the Easter Holiday, although Japanese markets will operate normally. Later in the day, the US will publish the core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index, the Fed’s favorite inflation figure, expected to remain stable at 2.8% YoY.
The Euro was among the worst performers, with EUR/USD settling below the 1.0800 threshold.
GBP/USD ended the day with modest losses after the Gross Domestic Product was confirmed at -0.2% YoY in the last quarter of 2023.
Commodity-linked currencies trade unevenly, with AUD/USD posting a modest decline and settling around 0.6514 amid tepid Australian data, but the USD/CAD falling towards 1.3520, helped by the good performance of stock markets.
Gold was the best performer, and flirts with record highs, with XAU/USD trading around $2,220.
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