- Indian Rupee (INR) falls for a third day
- Equities fall on Adani Group debt worries
- US Dollar (USD) rises versus major peers
- US GDP data is due tomorrow
The US Dollar Indian Rupee (USD/INR) exchange rate is rising on Wednesday for a third straight session. The pair rose +0.14% on Tuesday, settling at 81.59. At 10:00 UTC, USD/INR trades +0.13% at 81.70 and trades within a range of 81.47 – 81.78.
The Rupee is slipping lower, tracking domestic equities southwards after Adani Group drags Indian shares to a 1-week low.
Domestic equities dropped over 1%, pulled lower by Adani group after a well-known US short seller, Hindenburg, raised concerns over the group’s debt in a report which has hit sentiment across the market.
Separately oil prices are edging lower below $80 per barrel on expectations that OPEC+ will keep output levels unchanged next week. API inventory data also showed that crude stockpiles rose by 3.4 million barrels in the week ending January 20, well ahead of the 1 million forecast.
The US Dollar is rising across the board. The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback versus a basket of major currencies, trades +0.09% at the time of writing at 101.90, recouping losses from yesterday.
The US dollar is pushing modestly higher I made a cautious mood as investors continue digesting business activity data from the private sector and look ahead to queue for GDP data tomorrow.
US Business activity contracted for a 7th consecutive month in January, although the downturn what’s lower than expected. The S&P Global PMI data on Tuesday showed that the composite output index rose to 46.6 in January, up from 45 in December. This was the highest level in three months but was still below 50, the level that separates expansion from contraction.
Today there is no high-impact U.S. economic data due to be released. Instead, investors will look ahead to tomorrow’s GDP reading for the fourth quarter, which is expected to show that growth slowed to 2.8% annualised, down from 3.2% in Q3.
