The USD on Wednesday overcame selling pressure as it continues to rise against major currencies, but investors are still taking profits.
The USD index (DXY) dipped back to near-record levels, falling 0.6% on Tuesday as investors weighed potential for more Japan trade relief and took profits after weeks of gains fueled by upbeat economic data in America led them towards safer assets like gold or Treasury bonds.
The USD/JPY fell just under 0.8% on the day to back below 128, more than 1.2% lower than its intra-day multi decade highs hit earlier in session at 129.40 but with little sign so far that a meaningful rebound will happen any time soon, unless BoJ signals some sort of policy stance shift sooner.
The non-US dollars were notable outperformers on Wednesday as AUD/USD jumped about 1% to near 0.7450, NZD/USD gained about 1 percent and tested its 50 day moving average at 6813. The USD/CAD exchange rate dipped to two-week lows of 1.2500.
The European Central Bank chattered about a potential July hike helping the Euro to gain some ground against the dollar counterpart.
The weak dollar seen in the last session has been the main driver of EUR/USD gains 0.6% recovery to the 1.0850 area and GBP/USD 0.5% rebound to above 1.3050.
The Fed is likely to retouch rates by year’s end, so even though there has been some profit taking on USD it shouldn’t last longer and rallies of EUR,GBP are likely to have only short-term effects on the currency markets.
