US Dollar down ahead of Fed decision

Permalink: US Dollar down ahead of Fed decision by Elaine Frei

The US dollar weakened further on Wednesday ahead of the Federal Reserve’s decision on whether to raise interest rates again, this time to 5 percent, as well as in anticipation of comments that might give a hint about whether there might be a pause in the series of rate raises in June. Investors were still nervous, as well, about a US Treasury report due later in the day that some say could label China as a “currency manipulator”. Even if this does not happen, triggering Asian currencies to advance against the greenback, comments from Harvard economics professor Martin Feldstein that the dollar might need to weaken a further 30 to 40 percent in order to bring the US trade deficit down were worrying to investors.

By the middle of the day in New York the US dollar had dropped 0.3 percent to $1.2792 versus the euro. The greenback was also down by 0.5 percent against the Japanese yen to ¥110.55 and it dropped 0.1 percent to SFr1.2192 in relation to the Swiss franc. The US currency hit yet another new 28-year low of C$1.0980 versus the Canadian dollar. The only major currency that the dollar did not weaken against was sterling, which was down just a bit to $1.8650.