The US Dollar remains near recent multi-month highs on growing expectations that the Federal Reserve Bank will, indeed, increase interest rates in December. The latest economic data, including upbeat manufacturing reports as well as commentary from Fed officials, have largely cemented those expectations. Yesterday, the head of the Chicago branch of the Fed, Charles Evans, said that, provided inflation and the jobs market continued to see improvement, there was no reason why there couldn’t be several rate hikes before December 2017.
As reported at 10:41 am (BST) in London, the EUR/USD was trading at $1.0887, a gain of 0.013%; the pair earlier hit a session low of $1.0865 while the daily high was at $1.0893. The USD/JPY was also higher at 104.441 Yen, a gain of 0.21%; the daily peak was set at 104.4900 Yen while the session low was established at 104.12 Yen.
Markets Turn to Draghi For Tapering Clues
The Euro continues to come under pressure after investors’ hopes were dashed for a tapering of the ECB’s QE program. Even the latest economic data from within the Eurozone, this time Germany’s IFO surveys, hasn’t helped the common currency. Later today, markets will turn their attention to Mario Draghi for any additional clues during his lecture at DIW Europe in Germany where the topic will be “Stability, Equity and Monetary Policy.