Dollar Up, but Falls Below Year High as Investors Await U.S. Jobs

By Gina Lee

Investing.com – The dollar was up on Tuesday morning in Asia, but as investors await the latest U.S. jobs report for clues on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s timing to begin asset tapering and hiking interest rates.

The that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies edged up 0.17% to 93.942 by 10:28 PM ET (2:28 AM GMT).

The pair edged up 0.18% to 111.06.

The pair edged down 0.18% to 0.7271 and the pair was down 0.24% to 0.6945. The will hand down its policy decision later in the day, with the following a day later. The will hand down its own policy decision on Friday.

The pair was steady at 6.4467, with Chinese markets closed for a holiday. The pair edged down 0.13% to 1.3596.

The dollar has eased back slightly after hitting 94.504, its highest level since September 2020, during the previous week. It had rallied as much as 2.8% since Sep. 3, with investors pricing in the Fed’s asset tapering that could begin as soon as November 2021 and potential interest rate hikes in 2022.

Concerns about the risk of global stagflation to the U.S. debt ceiling debate also boosted the safe-haven greenback.

“There’s a lot of bad global news priced into the dollar. The key for markets in the weeks ahead is to sort out the extent of the risk premium already priced in versus how these factors play out,” TD Securities global head of FX strategy Mark McCormick (NYSE:) said in a report.

“While the near-term dollar bias leans higher, we’re wary about chasing the move at these levels,” the report added.

Meanwhile, the U.S. jobs report, including , is due on Friday. It is widely expected to show continuing improvement in the labor market. The improvement is also expected to be good enough for the Fed to begin asset tapering within 2021 as planned.