Dollar edges down as market awaits Fed minutes

EghtesadOnline: The dollar edged down in Asian trading on Wednesday as investors awaited the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest meeting for clues as to the pace of interest rate hikes, while the euro nursed losses and remained pressured by European political woes.

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22 February 2017

The Fed minutes due to be released later on Wednesday are a key focus for investors, as they could either reinforce or undermine recent hawkish comments from central bank policy makers, Reuters reported.

Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said late on Monday in a speech in Singapore that she would be comfortable raising rates at this point if the economy maintained its current performance.

Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker also told reporters on Monday that he would support an interest rate increase at a mid-March policy meeting as long as inflation, output and other data until then continue to show the U.S. economy is growing.

The dollar was 0.1 percent lower at 113.56 yen JPY=, edging away from its peak of 114.955 yen touched a week ago, which was its highest since late January.

"The dollar was pushed up by the Fed talk, but its upside is heavy in the Asian session, due to factors including Japanese companies' seasonal repatriation," said Mitsuo Imaizumi, chief currency strategist at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo.

"We're all waiting for the minutes, to see if members talked about reducing the Fed's balance sheet," he said.

Money market futures FFJ7 continued to price in approximately a one in five chance of a rate hike at the Fed's next meeting in March.

The euro was up 0.1 percent at $1.0547 EUR= after slipping to a low of $1.0526 overnight. A break of Feb. 15's low of $1.05215 would put it in its deepest trough since Jan. 11.

The euro remained pressured by market concerns about the anti-European Union rhetoric from French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen ahead of the first round of French elections on April 23.

The latest Elabe poll showed the lead of centrist Emmanuel Macron and conservative rival Francois Fillon over Le Pen falling to 18 and 12 points respectively, suggesting Le Pen may have more chance of springing a surprise if she can make it through to the second round of the elections in May.

But underpinning the single currency, purchasing manager index (PMI) reports showed the euro zone economy expanded much faster and more smoothly than expected. Eurozone private sector and manufacturing growth unexpectedly accelerated to near a six-year high in February and job creation reached its fastest since August 2007.

The dollar index .DXY, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was last down slightly at 101.35 after hitting a six-day high of 101.600 overnight.