In spite of the recent Federal Reserve policy decision which was surprisingly and decidedly dovish, the head of the US central bank, Janet Yellen, confirmed over the weekend that the Fed could begin gradually raising interest rates later in the year. That provided a broad lift to the greenback which had been under pressure, especially against the Euro, just last week. The Euro was feeling the heat on residual uncertainty regarding a new debt deal for Greece and whether or not the Greek government will meet an April 20th deadline with its creditors.
As reported at 9:42 am (GMT) in London, the EUR/USD was trading at $1.0851, a loss of 0.34% for the common currency and off the session low of $1.0821. Meanwhile, the USD/JPY was trading at 119.725 Yen, a gain of 0.44% and off the day’s high of 119.8200 Yen. The US Dollar Index was also higher at 97.6870 .DXY, a gain of 0.41% and moving away from the recently struck 2-year low.
[CAD:FXAcademy CTA #75]Markets Focus on NFP
Markets will turn their attention to the end of this week and the release of the US non-farms payroll report which will show the creation of new private sector jobs for March. At 242K new jobs, analysts are expecting to see a slightly smaller number than the previous month, however any downside surprise could raise uncertainty, once again, on the Fed’s rate hike timing.