Dollar Consolidates Losses As Investors Evaluate Central Bank Decisions

This is what you need to know to trade today Friday, December 17:

The US dollar index (DXY) closed in negative territory on Thursday as the British pound and the euro rallied on the optimistic outlook from the Bank of England (BOE) and the European Central Bank (ECB). Before the weekend, the greenback is consolidating its losses and investors await the IFO sentiment data from Germany and the final revision of euro zone inflation.

Unsurprisingly, the ECB announced that it will end the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program (PEPP) in March. To continue supporting the economy, the bank will increase purchases under the Asset Purchase Program to 40 billion euros from 20,000 today in the second quarter before reducing them again to 30,000 million and 20,000 million in the third and fourth. quarter, respectively. The bank also revised its inflation forecast for 2022 significantly higher. During the press conference, ECB President Christine Lagarde said that a rate hike in 2022 was highly unlikely, but did not openly rule out the possibility.

Following the November decision to keep its monetary policy rate unchanged, the BoE opted for a 15 basis point hike in December, citing inflation concerns. The bank said the Ómicron variant is expected to weigh on economic activity in the short term, while adding that the potential medium-term impact was unclear.

The EUR/USD It hit its highest level in more than two weeks at 1.1361 on Thursday, but erased a portion of its daily losses before closing at 1.330. The pair is moving sideways near that level in the early hours of Friday.

GBP/USD virtually unchanged for the day slightly above 1.3300. UK data showed that retail sales rose 4.7% annually in November, after registering a 1.5% contraction in October, but investors did not show any reaction to this reading.

USD/JPY It reversed its direction after hitting a 21-day high at 114.28 on Wednesday and appears to be flowing around 113.50. The Bank of Japan left their monetary policy adjustments unchanged after the December meeting and Governor Haruhiko Kuroda reiterated that they will ease policy without hesitation if necessary.

The USD/TRY It rose nearly 6% on Thursday after the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey decided to cut its monetary policy rate by 100 basis points. The pair hit a new all-time high above 4pm on Friday morning and is up nearly 20% in December.

The oro gathered steam as central banks made it clear that they are increasingly concerned about inflation. XAU / USD is trading above $ 1800 for the first time in December.

The Bitcoin it remains below the downtrend line that comes from early November and trades around $ 47,000. Ethereum failed to stay above $ 4,000 after staging a decisive rebound on Wednesday and was last seen shedding nearly 2% on the day at $ 3,890.

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