Dollar Index Holds Steady With Eyes On Fed
Investing.com - The dollar held steady on Monday, investors remained cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve highly-anticipated policy meeting set to begin on Tuesday.
Trading was expected to be quiet on Monday with no major U.S. economic reports to be released throughout the day.
The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged this week. However the U.S. central bank could give indications on when it plans to begin unwinding its balance sheet.
USD/JPY was up 0.59% at an eight-week high of 111.47, while USD/CHF held steady at 0.9594.
Market sentiment seemed to have recovered from news late Thursday that North Korea fired a missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean. It was the peninsula's second missile launch over Japanese territory in just over two weeks.
U.S. President Donald Trump was set to address the United Nations for the first time this week and Pyongyang was widely expected to be on the agenda.
In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was said to be considering calling a snap election for as early as next month to take advantage of his improved approval ratings.
Japanese markets were closed on Monday for the Respect-for-the-Aged Day Holiday.
Elsewhere, EUR/USD added 0.14% to 1.1956, while GBP/USD slid 0.25% to trade at 1.3560, just off a fresh 15-month peak of 1.3619 hit overnight.
Sterling remained broadly supported after Gertjan Vlieghe, an external member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, said that interest rates could rise “as early as in the coming months.”
The comments came after the BoE indicated in its policy statement on Thursday that interest rates could rise faster than expected amid accelerating inflation.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars were weaker, with AUD/USD down 0.27% at 0.7982 and with NZD/USD shedding 0.26% to 0.7272.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD edged 0.15% higher to 1.2209.
Data on Monday showed that Canada's foreign securities purchases increased to C$23.95 billion in July, blowing past expectations for a C$4.46 billion rise.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was little changed at 91.67 by 10:35 a.m. ET (14:35 GMT).
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Forex - Dollar Index Holds Steady With Eyes On Fed
