Fed’s Schmid: Inflation is too hot

Agustin Wazne FXStreet

Federal Reserve (Fed) Bank of Kansas City President Jeffrey Schmid said that he prefers to keep the monetary policy modestly restrictive, as cutting rates could worsen the inflation situation at the Economic Club of Kansas City on Thursday.

Key takeaways

Inflation is too hot.

Prefer to keep monetary policy modestly restrictive.

Cutting rates could worsen inflation without helping employment much.

Inflation a top concern among business contacts.

December CPI consistent with close-to-3% inflation.

Monetary policy is currently not very restrictive, economy shows momentum.

Labor market stresses are structural, rate-cutting won't patch them over.

Tax policy, deregulation likely to boost investment, spending, demand.

No room to be complacent on inflation.”

US Dollar Price Today

The table below shows the percentage change of US Dollar (USD) against listed major currencies today. US Dollar was the strongest against the British Pound.

	USD	EUR	GBP	JPY	CAD	AUD	NZD	CHF
USD		0.26%	0.35%	-0.05%	0.08%	-0.30%	0.05%	0.34%
EUR	-0.26%		0.09%	-0.31%	-0.19%	-0.56%	-0.21%	0.07%
GBP	-0.35%	-0.09%		-0.40%	-0.28%	-0.65%	-0.30%	-0.02%
JPY	0.05%	0.31%	0.40%		0.11%	-0.25%	0.07%	0.38%
CAD	-0.08%	0.19%	0.28%	-0.11%		-0.36%	-0.03%	0.27%
AUD	0.30%	0.56%	0.65%	0.25%	0.36%		0.36%	0.64%
NZD	-0.05%	0.21%	0.30%	-0.07%	0.03%	-0.36%		0.28%
CHF	-0.34%	-0.07%	0.02%	-0.38%	-0.27%	-0.64%	-0.28%

The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the US Dollar from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the Japanese Yen, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent USD (base)/JPY (quote).

Author

Agustin Wazne

FXStreet

Agustin Wazne joined FXStreet as a Junior News Editor, focusing on Commodities and covering Majors.

EUR/USD flirts with daily highs, retargets 1.1900

EUR/USD regains upside traction, returning to the 1.1880 zone and refocusing its attention to the key 1.1900 barrier. The pair’s slight gains comes against the backdrop of a humble decline in the US Dollar as investors continue to assess the latest US CPI readings and the potential Fed’s rate path.

GBP/USD remains well bid around 1.3650

GBP/USD maintains its upside momentum in place, hovering around daily highs near 1.3650 and setting aside part of the recent three-day drop. Cable’s improved sentiment comes on the back of the Greenback’s irresolute price action, while recent hawkish comments from the BoE’s Pill also collaborate with the uptick.

Gold clings to gains just above $5,000/oz

Gold is reclaiming part of the ground lost on Wednesday’s marked decline, as bargain-hunters keep piling up and lifting prices past the key $5,000 per troy ounce. The precious metal’s move higher is also underpinned by the slight pullback in the US Dollar and declining US Treasury yields across the curve.

Crypto Today: Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP in choppy price action, weighed down by falling institutional interest

Bitcoin's upside remains largely constrained amid weak technicals and declining institutional interest. Ethereum trades sideways above $1,900 support with the upside capped below $2,000 amid ETF outflows.

Week ahead – Data blitz, Fed Minutes and RBNZ decision in the spotlight

US GDP and PCE inflation are main highlights, plus the Fed minutes. UK and Japan have busy calendars too with focus on CPI. Flash PMIs for February will also be doing the rounds. RBNZ meets, is unlikely to follow RBA’s hawkish path.

Ripple Price Forecast: XRP potential bottom could be in sight

Ripple edges up above the intraday low of $1.35 at the time of writing on Friday amid mixed price actions across the crypto market. The remittance token failed to hold support at $1.40 the previous day, reflecting risk-off sentiment amid a decline in retail and institutional sentiment.