- Indian Rupee (INR) holds steady after two days of gains
- Equities fall further on Adani Group concerns
- US Dollar (USD) rises after GDP data
- US core PCE is due tomorrow
The US Dollar Indian Rupee (USD/INR) exchange rate is holding steady on Thursday after losses in the previous session. The pair fell -0.13% on Wednesday, settling at 81.49. At 15:00 UTC, USD/INR trades +0.01% at 81.49 and trades within a range of 81.35 – 81.57.
The Indian Rupee is showing resilience against the rising USD even as Indian domestic equities fall lower. The Sensex closed -1.3% lower at a 10-day low and the Nifty 50 also shed 1.25%, dropping to a 10 day low.
The fall in equities comes as the Adani Group evaluates the action it could take under US and Indian law against short-seller Hindenburg Research.
Oil prices have risen 1.2% boosted by hopes that the Federal Reserve could engineer a soft landing for the US economy and avoid a deep recession.
The US Dollar is steady against the Rupee but is rising against its major peers. The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback versus a basket of major currencies, trades +0.33% at the time of writing at 101.98, after two days of losses.
The US dollar is pushing higher against its major peers after data showed that US economy grew faster than expected in the final three months of 2022. US Q4 GDP rose 2.9% annualised, and slightly from 3.2% growth in the third quarter. However, this was ahead of the 2.6% growth that analysts had penciled in.
The world’s largest economy proved to be more resilient than expected at the end of 2022 even as EU S Federal Reserve aggressively raised interest rates to tame inflation and slow business activity. Since March the Fed has raised interest rates by more than 4% and is expected to raise interest rates by a further 25 basis points next week.
Attention will now turn to US core PCE data, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, which is expected to show the inflation cooled further in December.
