USD rises on rate hike speculation

USD/JPY remained bid in Asia and consolidated gains after surging to 124.17 on Tuesday. The US dollar surged on Tuesday, after being given a big boost by hawkish comments from a core FOMC member, Jerome Powell, who believes there could be a rate hike in September. Also strong US new home sales numbers lifted the dollar yesterday. In the Asian session, USD/JPY trade between 123.74 – 124.09. The Nikkei rose to its highest since November 1996.
EUR/JPY was steady near Tuesday’s low of 138.19 before edging up to 138.79.

EUR/USD opened in Asia at 1.1166, remaining heavy since yesterday despite optimism on Greece and good Eurozone PMIs.The stronger US dollar weighed on the euro. Focus remains on Greece and the Eurogroup meeting today.

GBP/USD bounced from yesterday’s 1.5708 to 1.5744. More hawkish talk from Bank of England MPC Weale helped lift the pound (Weale commented in the Financial Times).

EUR/GBP traded in a tight 0.7095-0.7105 range, but the downside bias remains.

USD/CHF traded between 0.9344 to 0.9330 in Asia. EUR/CHF was quiet, trading 1.0424-38 in Asia.

AUD/USD opened in Asia at 0.7735, after the pair had a strong performance yesterday.

NZD/USD traded a tight 0.6849-74 range in Asia after falling to a fresh five year low of 0.6815 yesterday.

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