Dollar Soars as Federal Reserve Hints at Early Tapering By

By Peter Nurse

Investing.com – The dollar soared in early European trade Thursday, climbing to a nine-month high after the Federal Reserve raised the possibility of starting to cut back its pandemic-era monetary stimulus this year.

At 2:55 AM ET (0755 GMT), the Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, traded 0.4% higher at 93.460, just below the 93.517 level reached earlier, its strongest since early November. 

was 0.3% lower at 1.1675, falling to lows not seen since November 2020, fell 0.4% to 1.3708, falling to a four-week low, while fell 0.6% to 0.7188, a level not seen since Nov. 5.

The of the July Federal Reserve policy meeting were released on Wednesday and showed the Fed officials saw the potential to ease bond-buying stimulus this year if the economy continues to improve as expected, although the condition of “substantial further progress” toward maximum employment had not yet been met.

This Fed meeting occurred before the strong July report, and in all likelihood cements the view that the central bank will unveil more details of its tapering plan at the Jackson Hole symposium at the end of next week.

Ahead of that, the weekly data are due later in the session, and should confirm a gradually improving U.S. labor market. The for August is also scheduled for release Thursday, and is expected to show a small improvement from July.

Additionally, traded 0.3% higher to 110.06 and rose 0.2% to 0.9186, with the dollar also outperforming the Japanese yen and Swiss franc after the Fed minutes.

That said, these two currencies have performed strongly elsewhere this week, underscoring persistent demand for havens amid the political turmoil in Afghanistan.  is around 1% lower this week, while is down 0.8%. 

Elsewhere, traded 0.2% at 0.6959, just off a three-week high, ahead of the latest of China’s central bank, scheduled for early Friday.

The People’s Bank of China is expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged for the 16th straight month, but that view is not universal amid signs the country’s economic recovery is losing steam.