The Dollar Index appears to have risen on Friday to its highest level since July 2020 as expectations rise for a rapid tightening of monetary policy in the US both this spring and summer.
Investors may have heard hawkish comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell yesterday, who suggested more aggressive rate hikes in the future. Speaking Thursday at a panel organized by the IMF, the Fed chairman said the central bank is committed to raising interest rates quickly to bring inflation down, and added that a 50 basis point rate hike is still on the table for May. Powell pointed out that aside from damaging inflation, the U.S. economy is very strong and the labor market is in good shape. The dollar index seems to have gained for the third week in a row. Powell's speech was followed by opinions from various institutions on how further monetary policy in the US may shape up. Among them, Nomura points to the possibility of hikes of as much as 75 basis points both in June and July. This seems to be one of the bigger predictions for Fed action.
In addition to the strength of the US dollar, today on the currency market we may also observe the relative weakness of the British pound. Macroeconomic data from the UK may have contributed to the GBP depreciation. Retail sales in the UK fell by 1.4 percent in March 2022, which seems to be much worse than market forecasts of a 0.3 percent decline. The data suggests that consumers may be spending less due to rising prices. Additionally, UK consumer morale was the weakest since 2008. The GfK consumer confidence index in the UK fell to -38 points in April 2022, the lowest level since July 2008.
As a consequence of the above events, the GBP/USD pair price could fall by almost 1% today, to the lowest level since the end of 2020. Yesterday the pair was quoted at the area of 1.3030, and fall today to the region of 1.2900. The market can still wait for the speeches of Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey later today.
Among the world's major currencies, it is also impossible not to pay attention to the recent weakness of the Japanese yen, which is trying to stabilize under the level of 130.00 on the USD/JPY pair. The talks between the Japanese and American sides on taking joint steps to slow down such rapid changes in the exchange rate could help in this process. A meeting was to be held between the Japanese Finance Minister and the US Treasury Secretary on this matter. Since the beginning of the year, the yen seems to have lost about 10 percent against the US dollar.
Daniel Kostecki, Director of the Polish branch of Conotoxia Ltd. (Forex service)
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