Connect with us
Finance Digest is a leading online platform for finance and business news, providing insights on banking, finance, technology, investing,trading, insurance, fintech, and more. The platform covers a diverse range of topics, including banking, insurance, investment, wealth management, fintech, and regulatory issues. The website publishes news, press releases, opinion and advertorials on various financial organizations, products and services which are commissioned from various Companies, Organizations, PR agencies, Bloggers etc. These commissioned articles are commercial in nature. This is not to be considered as financial advice and should be considered only for information purposes. It does not reflect the views or opinion of our website and is not to be considered an endorsement or a recommendation. We cannot guarantee the accuracy or applicability of any information provided with respect to your individual or personal circumstances. Please seek Professional advice from a qualified professional before making any financial decisions. We link to various third-party websites, affiliate sales networks, and to our advertising partners websites. When you view or click on certain links available on our articles, our partners may compensate us for displaying the content to you or make a purchase or fill a form. This will not incur any additional charges to you. To make things simpler for you to identity or distinguish advertised or sponsored articles or links, you may consider all articles or links hosted on our site as a commercial article placement. We will not be responsible for any loss you may suffer as a result of any omission or inaccuracy on the website.

NEWS

Dollar steady after key jobs data comes in below estimates

Published On :

Dollar steady after key jobs data comes in below estimates

By Hannah Lang and Amanda Cooper

WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) -The U.S. dollar stood near a one-week high against a basket of currencies on Tuesday, after fresh employment data showed that U.S. job openings dropped in October to the lowest level since early 2021.

Job openings, a measure of labor demand, fell 617,000 to 8.733 million on the last day of October, the Labor Department said in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, on Tuesday, coming in below estimates.

The slowing labor market and subsiding inflation have raised optimism that the U.S. Federal Reserve is probably done raising interest rates this cycle, with financial markets even anticipating a rate cut in mid-2024.

“The Fed is trying to convince the markets that it could still raise rates,” said Joseph Trevisani, senior analyst at FXStreet.com. “I think the markets think everything’s done, but the fact that the Fed is willing to go on about this is giving everybody pause.”

The dollar index was last up 0.12% at 103.73, around one-week highs. Analysts said the dollar’s nudge up was in part due to a reversal of the heavy selloff in recent weeks that stripped 3% off the dollar index in November alone, its steepest monthly decline in a year.

Elsewhere, the yuan held steady in the face of a downgrade to the outlook for China’s credit rating from Moody’s, as major state-owned banks stepped in to stem any slide by selling dollars.

Bitcoin held close to its highest since April last year, above $42,000.

CUTS PRICED IN

Traders have priced in at least 125 basis points worth of rate cuts from the Federal Reserve next year, with a good chance of 50 bps by June, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.

“The market’s main focus now is still very much on what central banks are going to do next year in terms of policy. We’ve had this very dramatic dovish repricing of rate expectations for both the Fed and the [European Central Bank] over the past week, so that’s certainly having an impact on FX markets,” MUFG currency strategist Lee Hardman said.

Investors believe the ECB could deliver its first rate cut by next March. Inflation across the euro zone has fallen more quickly than most anticipated, as evidenced by last Thursday’s consumer price data.

The euro was last down 0.18% to $1.0817.

The yuan held steady after Moody’s decision to cut China’s credit outlook to “negative” on Tuesday, thanks in part to state-owned banks that were seen swapping yuan for U.S. dollars in the onshore swap market and selling those dollars in the spot market, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.

Sterling was little changed at $1.262, down 0.13%, while the yen was steady, leaving the dollar at 146.91.

The Australian dollar fell 0.82% to $0.65645, below Monday’s four-month high, after the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) kept rates at a 12-year high of 4.35% on Tuesday.

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin was up 0.55% at $42,214, narrowly below Monday’s peak of $42,404, its highest since April 2022.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency has gained 150% this year, fuelled in part by optimism that a U.S. regulator will soon approve exchange-traded spot bitcoin funds (ETFs).

(Reporting by Hannah Lang in Washington and Amanda Cooper in London; Additional reporting by Rae Wee in Singapore; Editing by Frances Kerry and Bernadette Baum)

Continue Reading

Why pay for news and opinions when you can get them for free?

       Subscribe for free now!


By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

Recent Posts