• Indian Rupee (INR) rises for a second day
  • Indian domestic equities & oil rise
  • US Dollar (USD) falls but remains near recent highs
  • US Q4 GDP data due later

The US Dollar Indian Rupee (USD/INR) exchange rate is falling for a second straight session on Thursday. The pair settled -0.03% lower on Wednesday at 82.83. At 10:00 UTC, USD/INR trades -0.1% at 82.75 and trades in a range of 82.73 to 82.83.

The Rupee is rising, helped higher by a broad recovery in Asian currencies, amid improvement in risk appetite. Domestic equities advanced, with the Sensex trading +0.2% at the time of writing after 4 days of steep declines.

Oil prices are creeping higher after falling almost 3% in the previous session, hurt by concerns that higher interest rates could slow growth and hit the oil demand outlook.

There is no high-impacting Indian data due to be released today; investors will look ahead to foreign exchange reserves data tomorrow and GDP figures next week.

The US Dollar is falling across the board. The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback versus a basket of major currencies, trades -0.04% at the time of writing at 104.46, after strong gains in the previous session.

The US dollar is edging lower but remains elevated as investors continue digesting the minutes of the February monetary policy meeting. The minutes revealed that most fed officials supported the slower pace of rate hikes at 25 basis points as it would allow them to assess the economy’s progress better. However, there were still some policymakers who preferred a larger 50 basis point increase, even before the blowout January jobs report.

Overnight, St Louis fed president James Bullard said the Fed needs to tighten monetary policy further. He expects interest rates to peak between 5.25 to 5.5%, which is still 50 basis points above the current level.

Looking ahead, attention now turns to the US GDP data, which is expected to confirm the preliminary reading of 2.9% quarter-on-quarter annualized down from 3.2% in Q3, Stronger than forecast growth could fuel hawkish Fed bets and pull the USD lower.