© Reuters. US dollar banknotes in a photo from the Reuters archive.
TOKYO (Reuters) – The dollar was steady against major currencies on Friday, as investors assessed unclear data on consumer price inflation in the United States in light of bets that the Federal Reserve (the US central bank) will cut interest rates by March.
Consumer prices rose in the United States in December, with rents continuing to rise, which rose 0.3 percent during the month, an annual increase of 3.4 percent, compared to economists’ expectations in a Reuters poll of an increase of 0.2 percent monthly and 3.2 percent annually.
According to the CME FeedWatch tool, traders expect by 73.2 percent that the first US interest rate cut of 25 basis points will come in March, with several other cuts in the future.
It settled at 102.25, down from the highest level recorded on Thursday at 102.76, but much higher than its lowest level in five months at 100.61, which it reached in December, when traders began to anticipate the possibility of cutting US interest rates several times during the current year. It settled near $1.0977 after its gains against the US currency the previous day, while the pound was trading at $1.2776, up 0.1 percent during the day.
Meanwhile, the yen was trading near 145.11 to the dollar, moving away from a one-month low of 146.41 reached on Thursday.
As for cryptocurrencies, they settled unchanged in the latest trading at $46,118, after rising to the highest level in two years during the night hours, after the US Securities and Exchange Commission gave the green light on Wednesday to exchange-traded funds that invest directly in Bitcoin.
(Prepared by Sherine Abdel Aziz for the Arab Bulletin – Edited by Soha Jado)
2024-01-12 06:57:00
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