- Indian Rupee (INR) steady as equities & oil rally
- OPEC meeting to decide output levels
- US Dollar (USD) rebounds after post Fed decline
- US non-farm payroll tomorrow
The US Dollar Indian Rupee (USD/INR) exchange rate is treading water on Thursday after three straight days of declines. The pair settled -0.3% lower on Wednesday at 74.44. At 14:00 UTC, USD/INR trades +0.02% at 74.46.
The Rupee is trading quietly on Thursday, supported by a rise in domestic equities but also being limited by rising oil prices. Indian imports around 80% of its oil.
Oil prices have rallied 2% today ahead of the OPEC+ meeting. The oil cartel is not expected to given in to demand of leaders around the globe and instead stick to the oil supply plan agreed in July, increasing output by 400,000 barrels per day.
Should OPEC+ agree to increase output this could bring oil prices down. West Texas Intermediate reached a seven year high in October on the back of tight supply and high demand.
The US Dollar is trading higher across the board. The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback versus a basket of major currencies trades +0.47% at the time of writing at 94.33 paring losses from the previous session.
The US Dollar is rebounding on Thursday recovering from a post Fed selloff on Wednesday. The Fed, as expected announced the start of its tapering of its monthly $120 billion bond purchases by $15 billion.
However, Fed Powell dampened the prospect of a rate hike any time soon saying that the US economy was still some distance from full employment. The US Dollar fell sharply following the meeting. However, today, investors are taking a more balanced view of the meeting and the overall picture of the US economy.
US jobless claims also fell to a fresh post pandemic low of 269k below the 277k forecast. Attention will now turn to the US non farm payroll data tomorrow for further clues over the health of the economy.
