Dollar broadly stronger on Fed official comments, sterling slides

The dollar is broadly stronger after it received a boost on Wednesday on some hawkish comments from St. Louis Fed President James Bullard who added his support to the possibility of more Fed rate hikes this year. Speaking in an interview yesterday, Bullard said the Fed policymakers should consider raising rates at their next meeting in April.
Meanwhile another Fed official – Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker – speaking earlier this week, said he would prefer at least three hikes before year end.

The dollar rose steady on Wednesday to a six-day high of 112.90 yen where it consolidated.

EURUSD was consolidating in Asian trading today at around a one-week low of $1.1159 touched on Wednesday. The euro has lost 0.8 percent so far this week.

GBPUSD traded near $1.4081, a one-week low reached yesterday. The blasts in Belgium brought Brexit fears to the fore and are seen as exacerbating the possibility of Britain leaving the European Union.

Commodity-linked currencies were affected negatively by a drop in oil prices which fell more than 3 per cent on Wednesday after data showed US stockpiles rose to a record high for the sixth week in a row. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was 0.2 per cent higher at $40.56 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate, the US marker, was down 0.1 per cent at $39.74.

AUDUSD dipped below $0.7500 this morning, extending its slide from Wednesday when it lost 1.2 percent on Wednesday.

The Canadian dollar lost over 1 percent yesterday. Canada is an oil producer and exporter. USDCAD rose to $1.3228.

Important data to look ahead to later today will be UK retail sales, US durable goods orders and jobless claims data.

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