The US Dollar is little changed against the Pound but has softened against the Euro and Japanese Yen as speculation builds that the Federal Reserve will begin to phase out its stimulus measures in September.
Demand for the safe-haven Yen was boosted in early trading as the speculation continued to affect the markets. Investors are hoping that the release of the minutes for the Federal Reserve’s July policy meeting will give clearer indication as to when the Central Bank will decide to taper its huge stimulus programme. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said last month that the decision to start reducing stimuli all depends on the performance of the US economy.
Data released over the past few weeks has given cause for investors to expect an easing sooner rather than later. The US jobs market looks strong and continues to improve and a plethora of other data releases has supported speculation that the economy is strong enough to warrant a scale down.
The only US data released today was the Chicago Federal national activity Index. The data showed that the Index fell more than expected last month. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago the Index fell to a seasonally adjusted -0.15 from the -0.23 recorded in the previous month. Economists had been calling for a decline of -0.10.
The data has had little impact on the USD/GBP pair due to the markets classing the data as of low importance. The Dollar’s big movements are likely to occur on Wednesday, the day when the Federal Reserve policy meeting minutes are released.
Current US Dollar (USD) Exchange Rates
The US Dollar/Pound Sterling Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.6377
The US Dollar/Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.7485
The US Dollar/Australian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.0397
The US Dollar/Japanese Yen Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 97.0175
The US Dollar/Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.0341
(Correct as of 14:35 pm GMT)
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