- Indian Rupee (INR) falls back toward a record low
- Indian equities hold steady, oil rises
- US Dollar (USD) rises after Fed Powell’s comments
- US housing starts
The US Dollar Indian Rupee (USD/INR) exchange rate is resuming the uptrend again on Wednesday after losses in the previous session. The pair settled -0.47% lower on Tuesday at 77.45. At 10:00 UTC, USD/INR trades +0.3% at 77.57.
The Rupee is falling heading back towards a record low despite domestic equities holding steady.
The Sensex trades flat on the day, paring earlier gains and the Nifty 50 is also trading just 0.05% lower. Investors continue to weigh up concerns over surging inflation and slowing growth, which is weighing on risk sentiment. Meanwhile optimism surrounding falling COVID cases in China is limiting losses.
Oil prices are heading higher on Wednesday, which is bad news for India, which imports around 80% of its oil requirements. West Texas Intermediate trades 1.3% higher at $111.30.
The US Dollar is rising across the board. The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback versus a basket of major currencies, trades +0.3% at the time of writing at 101.45, building on gains from last week.
The US dollar fell across the board yesterday despite strong US retail sales data. Retail sales rose 0.9% month on month in April, after rising 1.4% in March. The solid retail sales data comes despite inflation rising to 8.5% in March a 40-year high and despite consumer confidence falling to its lowest level in 11 years. The fact that consumers are willing to keep spending bodes well for GDP growth in the second quarter of the year and supports the Federal Reserve to act more aggressively to raise interest rates.
Following the data Fed Chair Powell said that the Fed will keep raising interest rates until inflation comes back under control towards the 2% target.
Today the US dollar is pushing higher, tracing treasury yields northwards. There is no high impacting data, however mid-tier data could attract some attention. US building permits and housing starts are due to be released.
