Forex Today: Inflation and recession fears continue to drive financial markets
|What you need to take care of on Wednesday, June 29:
The American dollar resumed its advance on Tuesday and finished the day with gains against most major rivals amid renewed inflation and recession-related fears. The CB Consumer Confidence Index fell in June to 98.7 at its lowest level since February 2021. More relevantly, the survey showed that consumer expectations were sharply down, falling to their lowest in almost a decade, amid increased concerns about inflation, expected to keep climbing.
Earlier in the day, the European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde spoke at the Central Banking Forum organized by the ECB in Portugal. She reaffirmed the central bank intends to raise rates by 25 bps in July but added that her team is ready to hike at a faster pace if needed. She also downplayed recession risks, noting that policymakers are still expecting positive growth rates. Also, ECB Pierre Wunsch said he would be comfortable with a 50 bps hike in September, as 200 bps of hikes are needed relatively fast.
The EUR/USD pair flirted with the 1.0500 level and settled at 1.0520. The GBP/USD pair is below 1.2200. Commodity-linked currencies edged lower, undermined by the sour tone of Wall Street. US indexes are once again flirting with bearish territory.
The AUD/USD pair is now around 0.6900, while USD/CAD advanced to 1.2875. The USD/JPY pair is back above 136.00 and nearing multi-decade highs.
Gold shed some ground and settled around $1,820 a troy ounce, but crude oil prices kept rising amid supply concerns. G7 leaders discussed an agreement to impose a price cap on Russian oil, as sanctions on the crypto sent crude prices skyrocketing. WTI is now at around $111.60 a barrel.
Focus shifts to inflation, as the US will publish the Q1 core PCE Price Index on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve's favorite inflation figure, while Germany will unveil the preliminary estimate of June CPI data.
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