The US Dollar continued to edge cautiously higher as investors look to the upcoming monetary policy decision from the US Federal Reserve Bank. Given the current state and the outlook for inflationary trends in the US, expectations are generally lower that the Fed will not make any policy adjustment when they announce the outcome of the 2-day policy meeting which concludes today. Experts say that they’ll look to the language of the Fed statement for clues as to the possible timing of the next rate hike, but currently forecasters are predicting a less than 50% chance of a rate hike in 2017. The Dollar is also getting some support from yesterday’s Senate vote on moving Trump’s healthcare plan into debate; with a 50-50 tie at the end of the roll call, the Vice President cast the deciding vote in favor or allowing debate.
As reported at 10:57 am (BST) in London, the EUR/USD was trading at $1.1631, down 0.14%; the pair has ranged from a session trough of $1.16122 to a peak of $1.16545. The GBP/USD was also lower at $1.3016, down 0.10% and moving off the session’s low of $1.29989; for the trading session, the high for the GBP/USD stands at $1.30434 for the day.
Aussie Dollar Pressured by Soft Data
In Australia, the Aussie Dollar slipped after the latest economic news showed unexpectedly soft inflation in Q2 with CPI at 0.2% against expectations of 0.4% (quarter-over-quarter) and annual CPI at 1.9%, falling from 2.1%, against forecasts of a rise to 2.2%. The AUD/USD was down 0.3875% to trade at $0.7908, not far from the session low of $0.78769.