With the Greece crisis taking second stage, analysts are turning their focus to other important data that continue to have impact on financial markets.
The dollar strengthened against the yen on Tuesday standing steady at 123.46 yen after touching a 12-day high of 123.74 yen and emerging from its near two-month low of 120.41 hit last week.
The U.S. currency position against the euro also stood strong. But the dollar relationship with both the yen and the euro may change after the Fed Chair Yellen testifies before the House Financial Services Committee where she might signal whether the Fed is more or less inclines to raise rates sooner rather than later (i.e. September hike).
Euro Remains Unchanged
The euro took a roller coaster ride Tuesday gaining ground with the news of a Greek deal with the ECB and then dropping back down to remain almost unchanged at $1.10400. It had fallen to a 12-year low of $1.0457 in March when the ECB introduced its quantitative easing policy and then rallied, remaining above $1.11 the last two months while the threat of Grexit hovered over the region.
According to Masashi Murata, senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in Tokyo, "Things simply reverted back to dollar-buying, with many in the market swiftly dropping Greece as a factor. The euro also looks overstretched against the dollar after managing to rise somehow during the Greek debt crisis. It's difficult to imagine the ECB accepting a euro that is too strong."
A go-ahead for an imminent interest rate hike by Fed Chairman Janet Yellen could put a new twist on world markets.