The dollar rose in European trade on Friday against a basket of major rivals, maintaining gains for the fourth straight session near six-week highs as the odds of a June Fed interest rate cut decline.
Now investors await important US personal spending data later today, in addition to Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech.
The greenback is heading for the biggest quarterly profit since 2022, as pricing for a 0.25% Fed interest rate cut in June drops.
A string of strong US data in recent days in addition to bullish remarks by Fed officials will likely nudge the Fed towards holding interest rates unchanged for an extended duration.
Federal Reserve member Christopher Waller said on Wednesday that there’s no rush to cut interest rates, and that he wants to see at least two months of low inflation data before cutting rates.
He added that recent US data could delay the number of expected US interest rate cuts this year.
Following the excellent data, the odds of a 0.25% Fed interest rate cut fell from 63% to 59%.
The dollar index is up 3.25% so far this quarter on track for the third quarterly profit in the last three quarters.
The gains are underpinned by increasing bullish remarks by Fed officials following upbeat economic data.
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