US Dollar Little Changed As The Week Draws To A Close
New York (Dec 18) The dollar is turning in a mixed performance against its major rivals Friday afternoon, but is little changed overall. There has been no US economic news to drive the direction of trading and global economic data was also on the light side. The majority of the US data this week was released before the Federal Reserve meeting, where the first US interest rate hike in nearly a decade was announced.
The most notable move is a decline in the dollar against the Japanese Yen, after the Bank of Japan announced a new ETF program. The greenback is nearly flat in comparison to its major European rivals.
The Bank of Japan kept its monetary base target unchanged but unveiled a new program to buy exchange-traded funds to encourage capital investment.
The Monetary Policy Board of the BoJ governed by Haruhiko Kuroda decided by an 8-1 majority vote on Friday to hold its target of raising the monetary base at an annual pace of about JPY 80 trillion .
Nonetheless, the BoJ said it will establish a new program for purchases of exchange-traded funds at an annual pace of about JPY 300 billion , in addition to the current program of ETF purchases.
Further, the bank will extend the average maturity government bond holdings.
The bank said the average remaining maturity of the bank's Japanese government bond purchases will be about 7-10 years until the end of this year and be extended to about 7-12 years from the beginning of the next year.
The dollar has fallen to a 3-session low of Y121.335 against the Japanese Yen this afternoon, from an early high of Y123.553 .
The buck dipped to an early low of USD1.0868 against the Euro Friday, but has since bounced back to around USD1.0850 .
The euro area current account surplus declined in October largely due to widening shortfall in secondary income, figures from the European Central Bank showed Friday. The current account surplus decreased to a seasonally adjusted EUR 20.4 billion in October from EUR 30.1 billion in September.
Germany's public debt decreased 0.8% in the third quarter from a year ago, Destatis reported Friday. Public debt totaled EUR 2.02 trillion at the end of the third quarter, down by EUR 16.5 billion from the same period of last year.
French producer prices decreased further in November, largely due to cheaper prices of coke and refined petroleum products, data from the statistical office INSEE showed Friday. Producer prices in the French market fell 2.4% year-over-year in November, following a 2.5% drop in the preceding month.
The greenback has risen to around USD1.49 against the pound sterling Friday afternoon, from an early low of USD1.4949.
Source: RTTnews
