© Reuters.
Investing.com – The US dollar held steady in early European trade Thursday near a one-month low after the first day of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s semi-annual testimony to Congress, while the pound slipped ahead of the latest Bank of England meeting.
At 01:50 EST (05:50 GMT), the US dollar rose against a basket of six other currencies to 101.707, trading above its one-month low.
Mixed messages from the Fed
The Chairman of the Federal Reserve appeared before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday. It was the first day of his two-day semi-annual testimony, and he stayed on the rhetoric, saying more from the US is a “very good guess” if the economy continues in its current direction.
However, he refused to commit to a July rate hike, as some had predicted, while his stance contrasted with other Fed members who have called for a long pause in the central bank’s rate hike cycle.
“The baseline is that we should stay at this level for the rest of the year,” Atlanta Fed President Rafael Bostick said in an article published earlier in the day. Economy “.
Powell is scheduled to speak again later Thursday, this time before the Senate Banking Committee.
Sterling drops ahead of the BoE meeting
Elsewhere, it fell 0.1% to 1.2756, not far from last week’s high of 1.2849, ahead of the latest policy-setting meeting.
The Bank of England is widely expected to raise interest rates for the 13th consecutive time later on Thursday, but odds of a big rise were raised by 50 basis points after the country settled in May at 8.7% on Wednesday, the highest rate on record. launch. major economy.
The ECB must remain ‘adamant’
It fell to 1.0988, not far from a one-month high, with European Central Bank officials maintaining an upbeat stance even after last week’s interest rate hike.
“Inflation for me is like a greedy beast and we have to fight this very greedy beast,” Joachim Nagel, head of the Bundesbank, told a conference. “As inflation warriors, we have to be very stubborn because inflation is very stubborn.”
Elsewhere, the risk-sensitive index fell 0.5% to 0.6762, with the Australian dollar pressured by uncertainty over China’s stimulus measures and commodity demand.
It fell 0.1% to 141.75, with the Japanese yen trading near six-month lows as the Bank of Japan maintains loose monetary policy, while it traded flat at 7.1795, with the Chinese yuan trading near six-month lows.
