- Indian Rupee (INR) edges lower after strong gains laid
- Oil prices surge on Saudi Arabia oil facilities attack
- US Dollar (USD) rise versus major peers on bond yields jump
- US Senate passes $1.9 trillion stimulus package
The US Dollar Indian Rupee (USD/INR) exchange rate is creeping higher after experiencing a deep selloff in the previous week. The pair dropped 1% last week, settle ng on Friday at 73.18. At 11:45 UTC, USD/INR trades +0.02% at 73.24.
The strengthening US Dollar and rising oil prices are dragging on the Rupee.
Brent crude oil has firmed over $70 per barrel after Houthi rebels in Yemen launched an attack on various oil industry facilities in Saudi Arabia. Operations at the facilities hadn’t been affected by the attack. However, this is the second attack so far this month, raising concerns over their frequency. West Texas Intermediate hit a 2 year high before easing back slightly.
The US Dollar is moving higher across the board. The US Dollar Index which measures the greenback versus a basket of 6 major currencies now trades 0.25% higher on the day at 92.25 hovering around a three-week high.
Over the weekend the US Senate passed Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion covid stimulus package boosting expectations of a strong economic recovery this year in the US.
The Senates approval comes following Friday’s US non-farm payroll report which showed that 379,000 new jobs were added in the US in February. This was well up from the 49,000 in January and double what analysts were expecting. Furthermore, the unemployment rate ticked lower to 6.2%, down from 6.3%.
A huge stimulus package, a recovering US jobs market and a strong vaccine rollout programme has improved the outlook for the US economy considerably. Investors are expecting US inflation to pick up firmly across the year bolstering expectations that the Fed could start to tighten monetary policy sooner than originally expected. US treasury yields have pushed over 1.60% to a fresh yearly high, unnerving investors and pulling the US Dollar higher.
