U.S. Dollar Rises broadly in Advance of Key Meetings

As reported at 12:58 p.m. in Sydney trading today, the U.S. Dollar rose in light Asian trading, continuing the greenback’s rebound from Friday’s trading in New York. Investors are attempting to cover their short positions in advance of key economic meetings to be held later this week; the Federal Reserve policy meeting will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday and investors are hopeful that they will have a clearer indication of the U.S. government’s thinking as regards the United States’ growing fiscal deficit and the direction of interest rates, which are at historic lows. Also eagerly anticipated is the outcome of the G20 summit, which will also be held this week.

The U.S. Dollar Index, which is a gauge of the U.S. currency’s value versus a basket of six major currencies, rose to 76.52 .DXY, an increase of .18%. Over the past few weeks, the U.S. Dollar Index has lost more than 2% on growing speculation that carry trade funding using the greenback is preferred to the Japanese Yen. The U.S. Dollar also rose against the Japanese Yen, trading at 91.50 Yen, a better than .3% gain from Friday’s trading. Growth-linked currencies were also down versus the U.S. Dollar; the Australian Dollar traded at $0.8652 while the New Zealand Dollar slipped to $0.7069; last week the NZD had touched on a 1-year high.