- Indian Rupee (INR) falls after hawkish central banks
- Oil prices drop 5% in 2-days
- US Dollar (USD) rises against major peers
- Fed Chair Powell reiterated his hawkish stance
The US Dollar Indian Rupee (USD/INR) exchange rate is rising for a second straight session. The pair rose +0.02% yesterday, settling on Thursday at 81.95. At 12:15 UTC, USD/INR trades +0.07% at 82.01 and trades in a range of 81.92 to 82.08. The pair is set to rise 0.12% across the week after falling -0.64% last week.
The Rupee is falling, tracking domestic equities lower. Indian shares fell across the week after hawkish central banks soured risk appetite across the board. The Nifty 50 lost 0.85% this week, and the Sensex has lost 0.65%, snapping a four-week winning run. This also marks the biggest weekly decline since late April.
Separately oil prices are falling, extending losses from yesterday. West Texas Intermediate trades 1.5% lower after falling 4% yesterday.
The US Dollar is rising across the board. The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback versus a basket of major currencies, trades at +0.6% at the time of writing at 103.00, extending gains from the previous session. The USD is set to rise 0.78% this week after 3 straight weekly declines.
The USD is pushing higher for a second straight day after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reiterated his hawkish stance in his second day of testimony before Congress. Along the same thread as the first day, Powell repeated his view that more interest rate hikes are likely in the months ahead in order to rein in inflation. He also added that the Federal Reserve will be data-dependent, but two more hikes could be a good guess.
Markets his not as convinced that the Fed will hike interest rates twice more this year. According to the CME FedWatch tool the market sees a 75% probability of one more rate hike in July.
Looking ahead, attention will turn back to data with PMIs expected to show that business activity in the US expanded at a slightly faster pace in June. The composite PMI is expected to tick higher to 54.4 from 54.3.
