The dollar index fell to its lowest in more than two months on Monday, extending a slide from the prior week as investors held to the belief that the U.S. Federal Reserve has finished its interest rate hike cycle and assess when the central bank may start to cut rates. The dollar index hit a low of 103.46, its weakest level since Sept. 1, after a tumble of nearly 2% last week, which marked the biggest weekly percentage drop since mid-July. Markets have priced out any additional Fed rate hikes, ...

The People’s Bank of China and the Saudi Central Bank recently signed a local currency swap agreement worth 50 billion yuan ($6.93 billion) or 26 billion Saudi riyals, both banks said on Monday, as bilateral relations continued to gather momentum. Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, and China, the world’s biggest energy consumer, have worked to take relations beyond hydrocarbon ties in recent years, expanding collaboration into areas such as security and technology. The swap agreement, which will be valid for three years and can be extended by mutual ...

USD: Thanksgiving unwind The dollar has fallen nearly 2% since last Tuesday’s US CPI release strongly suggested that the Federal Reserve’s tightening cycle was over. The dollar’s decline has been broad-based, meaning that even the unloved Japanese yen has found a few friends. However, the move looks to be one of short-covering on bearish positions elsewhere in the world rather than a major re-assessment of the Fed easing cycle. In fact, short-dated US yields, which we see as key for next year’s dollar decline, have barely budged over the last ...

The dollar slid to a more than two-month low on Monday, extending a downtrend from last week as traders reaffirmed their belief that U.S. rates have peaked and turned their attention to when the Federal Reserve could begin cutting rates. The dollar index bottomed out at 103.53 during Asian trade, its weakest level since Sept. 1, extending its nearly 2% decline from last week – the sharpest weekly fall since July. Against the weaker greenback, the euro hit its highest since August at $1.0937, while the yen firmed at a ...

The dollar posted its second-steepest weekly decline versus other major currencies this year on Friday, while the yen strengthened sharply, and the dollar traded below 150 yen, as concerns grow about the weakening global economic outlook. Cooler-than-expected U.S. inflation data on Tuesday and Wednesday hastened market expectations for how soon the Federal Reserve will cut rates. Such a move would weaken a major dollar support and could come as early as next year’s first quarter. The dollar index =USD, which measures the greenback against six other major currencies, slid to ...

Global companies are making a beeline for China’s debt markets, issuing record amounts of yuan-denominated bonds and borrowing heavily from mainland banks, capitalising on rock-bottom yuan interest rates as funding costs elsewhere jump. Companies and banks are raising record amounts of cash through yuan bonds issued in mainland China and in Hong Kong, known as panda and dim sum bonds, respectively. The surge in their borrowing from Chinese banks has catapulted the yuan past the euro into becoming the second-biggest currency used in global trade finance, providing a fillip to ...

U.S. Treasury funds recorded their first outflow since February in the week to Wednesday, as global investors shed $1 billion in the government bonds and piled into stocks, according to Bank of America and data provider EPFR on Friday. Investors snapped up $23.5 billion in stocks in the week to Nov. 15, marking the second largest weekly inflow into equities of 2023. The influx to stocks and flows out of U.S. Treasuries follows data on Tuesday that showed U.S. inflation slowing, boosting market hopes that the Federal Reserve is finished ...

USD: A glimpse of the future? The dollar has entered a consolidative phase, but yesterday’s price action gave us a glimpse of what could be more regular price action in 2024. US initial claims were a little stronger than expected, the US 2-10 year yield curve bull steepened by 3-4bp and DXY sold off around 0.4%. This is the kind of price action we expect to see more frequently next year as tight US rates finally play catch up with the US economy and employment trends start to deteriorate. Before ...

The dollar was on track for one of its steepest weekly falls versus major currencies this year on Friday, while the yen strengthened sharply to trade below 150 per dollar as concerns grow about the worsening global economic outlook. Cooler-than-expected U.S. inflation data on Tuesday helped reset market expectations for how quickly the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut rates and has weighed on the dollar, which is on track for a 1.6% weekly fall – its biggest drop since mid-July. The index was down 0.2% on the day at 104.14, ...

Investors maintained bearish bets on most Asian currencies as prospects of a buoyant U.S. dollar pushed them away from riskier assets after Federal Reserve officials seemed uncertain whether interest rates were high enough to tame inflation. Short positions in the Indonesian rupiah eased after bears on the currency firmed to their highest since November 2022, with those on China’s yuan, Indian rupee and Malaysian ringgit also easing. Investor confidence in the rupiah has taken a hit amid U.S. monetary policy tightening and rising geopolitical risks that prompted the country’s central ...

The dollar edged lower on Thursday after U.S. jobless claims rose more than expected last week, indicating a cooling labor market that could prompt the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates in early 2024 and engineer an economic soft landing. The dollar index , a measure of the U.S. currency against six peers, fell 0.19%, while the euro strengthened 0.34% to $1.0883. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 231,000 for the week ended Nov. 11, the Labor Department said. Economists polled by Reuters had ...

USD: Bouncing around The dollar is drifting higher as investors continue to assess whether the large drop on Tuesday was the start of something meaningful or just more noise in an uncertain environment. We have heard a couple of Federal Reserve speakers still holding out the risk of a further hike, but for the time being, US money markets seem pretty confident that the Fed cycle is over and have now priced 90bp of easing in 2024. Yesterday’s release of US October retail sales failed to kindle this week’s dollar ...

The dollar held its ground on Thursday after a volatile two days that saw sharp declines followed by a rebound as traders took incoming economic data as signalling the Federal Reserve will wait longer before cutting interest rates. The dollar index – which tracks the U.S. currency against six other units – was steady at 104.33. It gained 0.31% on Wednesday, following a 1.51% plunge the previous day – its largest drop for a single trading day in a year. The euro was up around 0.1% at $1.0857, as was ...

The fate of Asian FX in 2023 was largely a function of US dollar strength, overlaid with a myriad of local economic factors, which saw some currencies perform better than others at different times, though the broad theme was Asian FX losses against the USD. The Malaysian Ringgit came bottom of the pack, losing more than 5.5%, while Indonesia’s rupiah, India’s rupee and the Phillippine peso all made smaller losses, weakening by around 0.5%. All currencies have nevertheless lost ground to the US dollar in 2023 year-to-date, and we would ...

Sterling eased on Wednesday after data showed British inflation cooled at its fastest pace in more than 30 years in October, reinforcing expectations that the Bank of England (BoE) will be cutting interest rates by the middle of next year. The British consumer price index (CPI) rose by 4.6% in the 12 months to October, from September’s 6.7% increase, according to the Office for National Statistics. It was the lowest reading in two years and below forecasts for a reading of 4.8%. The drop to 4.6% from 6.7% was also ...