Forex Today: US Dollar remains firm and antipodeans fall off a cliff
|Here is what you need to know on Friday, May 26:
The US Dollar strengthened yet again on Thursday for the fourth consecutive day of trade vs. a basket of currencies as per the DXY index. DXY rallied from a low of 103.84 to a high of 104.312.
US data pointed to a resilient economy while progress on US debt ceiling talks remained elusive, helping Treasury yields higher and the US Dollar to score its highest level in over two months. Traders were wary of a possible default in early June while US President Joe Biden and top congressional Republican Kevin McCarthy were still not able to put a deal together. However, the two sides are now just $70 billion apart on a deal according to market chatter.
As for data, the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose modestly last week, and the prior week's data was revised sharply lower, the Labor Department said. US Jobless Claims in the week to 20 May came in at 229k, slightly above the previous week but lower than expected. Elsewhere, it was shown that the US economy is growing quicker than expected with real Q1 Gross Domestic Product up 1.3% QoQ.
As for the Federal Reserve speak, Boston Fed President Susan Collins said on Thursday the time may be at hand for the Fed to push the pause button on its interest-rate-hiking campaign to assess the impact of past tightening.
In forex, EUR/USD was down 0.31% to 1.0715. The Japanese yen fell 0.52% versus the greenback to 140.16 per US Dollar as investors wait for Tokyo Consumer Price Index on Friday. GBP/USD fell to a low of 1.2309. AUD was under pressure as was the Kiwi ahead of Aussie Retail Sales today with AUD/USD hitting a fresh cycle low below 0.6500. Gold sank to its lowest level in two months on Thursday and Oil prices dropped by $3 a barrel after Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak played down the prospect of further OPEC+ production cuts at its meeting next week. BTC rallied from the day´s lows in midday trade and traveled between a low of 25,878 and 26,611.
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