- Indian Rupee (INR) rises despite domestic equities dropping
- Oil trades higher ahead of OPEC+ meeting
- US Dollar (USD) rises versus major peers on as bond yields spike
- Federal Reserve Chair Powell to speak
The US Dollar Indian Rupee (USD/INR) exchange rate is edging lower on Thursday for a fourth straight session. The pair settled -0.4% lower on Wednesday at 72.93. At 12:15 UTC, USD/INR trades -0.20% at 72.79.
After opening the day on the back foot, the Indian Rupee has managed to strengthen versus the US Dollar.
The Rupee has pushed higher even as domestic equities edged lower. The benchmark Sensex index settled over 1.1% lower whilst the Nifty 50 also closed down over 1% is risk off trade. Even so Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital markets.
There is no high impacting Indian data due for release today. Investors will look ahead to tomorrow’s weekly foreign exchange reserves.
Elsewhere oil prices are climbing higher ahead of the OPEC meeting today. West Texas Intermediate rallied 2.5% on Wednesday and is up a further 0.8% today on expectations that OPEC+ may roll over production cuts into April. The group had been expected to ease output cuts to release more oil back into the markets from next month.
The US Dollar is trending lower versus the Rupee but is moving higher versus major peers. The US Dollar Index which measures the greenback versus a basket of 6 major peers trades 0.2% higher at the time of writing.
US bond yields spiked overnight to 1.50% boosting the US Dollar. A forecasting beating ISM services PMI reading of 60.8 (versus 58.8 expected) overshadowed weak ADP payroll numbers lifting inflation expectations and igniting a selloff in bonds. US ADP payroll data massively missed expectations with just 117,000 jobs added against 174,000 expected.
Investors will look towards Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell who is due to speak at 17:00 UTC. Investors will be keen to see whether Powell is becoming uncomfortable with the rapid rise in yields. If so expectations that the Fed could intervene could weigh on demand for the greenback.
US jobless claims will also be in focus. Expectations are for 750,000 initial jobless claims, this is up from 730,000 the previous week.
