- Indian Rupee (INR) rises after 6 straight losing sessions
- Daily covid cases hit new record – over 180,000
- US Dollar (USD) trades lower across the board
- US Fed Chair Powell set to speak
The US Dollar Indian Rupee (USD/INR) exchange is slipping lower, snapping a six session winning run. The pair settled 0.37% higher on Tuesday at 75.26. At 12:00 UTC, USD/INR trades -0.1% at 75.17. The price continues to hover at an 8 month high.
Covid concerns linger as the number of new daily cases reaches a new record high on Wednesday. 184,372 new infections have been recorded over the past 24 hours, according to the Indian Ministry of health. This takes the total number of infection to 13.98 million.
India’s richest state and its financial and industrial centre is the epicentre of the resurgence in covid. The state is going into a two-week lockdown as from midnight local time. Strict restrictions will be placed on industry and e-commerce in a move which is set to cripple manufacturing and other businesses in the region.
Concerns over the impact of tighter lockdown restrictions on the Indian economic recovery have hit demand for the currency and the share price in recent weeks.
The US Dollar is under pressure across the board. The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback versus a basket of major currencies trades -0.05% at the time of writing at 91.81, arounds its lowest level in over three weeks.
The US Dollar is trading lower as US treasury yields are also depressed. Inflation data released yesterday revealed that consumer prices rose faster than the consensus estimate in March, rising 0.6% on monthly basis. This is the largest monthly jump in 8 years. However, the market was expecting worse. This was a smaller overshoot than what investors had anticipated and is not likely to prompt the Fed to change its stance on monetary policy.
Later today Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is due to speak which could drive movement in the US Dollar.
