numbers-and-inr-currency-symbol - INR
  • Indian Rupee (INR) steadies after steep losses
  • Foreign exchange reserves hit record high
  • US Dollar (USD) surges to fresh 2 month high
  • Fed Bullard sees a rate rise in 2022

The US Dollar Indian Rupee (USD/INR) exchange rate is treading water on Friday, after surging higher in the previous session. The pair settled -1.22% lower on Thursday at 74.16. At 16:00 UTC, USD/INR trades -0.03% lower at 74.14 after touching its highest level this year. The pair is on track to gain 1.2% across the week.

The Rupee was licking its wounds on Friday after falling the most in two months in the previous session on the back of the Fed’s hawkish shock.

Domestic equities closed the session flat on Friday as losses in resources stocks were offset by gains in financials.

Indian foreign exchange reserves reached an all time high of $605 billion on June 4th, according to the Reserve Bank of India. However, the RBI has indicated that this may not be enough given the projected imports and negative investment position.

The US Dollar is edging lower versus the Rupee but has jumped higher versus its major peers. The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback versus a basket of major currencies trades +0.5% at the time of writing at 92.35 a fresh two month high.

The US Dollar is surging higher after St Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard adopted a hawkish stance saying that rising inflation could warrant the Fed to start raising interest rates as soon as next year. This would be an even sooner lift off for starting hikes than the Federal Reserve indicated in its monetary policy meeting earlier this week.

The Fed surprised the market in its Fed meeting this week by adopting a hawkish stance. The US central bank indicated that it expected interest rates to be hiked twice in 2023, when last meeting it didn’t expect any rate hikes until 2024.