- Indian Rupee (INR) steadies after 3-days of declines
- Indian equities fall from record highs
- US Dollar (USD) falls despite recent strong data
- US non-farm payroll data is due
The US Dollar Indian Rupee (USD/INR) exchange rate is holding steady after three days of gains. The pair rose 0.44% yesterday, settling on Thursday at 82.75. At 10:30 UTC, USD/INR trades -0.02% at 82.74 and trades in a range of 82.62 to 82.76. The pair is set to rise across the week, the third straight week of gains.
The Indian Rupee is holding steady after falling to a monthly low on worries that the Federal Reserve will keep hiking interest rates higher for longer.
The Rupee is tracking domestic equities lower, and Indian shares are slipping from their record highs on Friday. The Sensex trades -0.5% lower.
Separately oil prices are set to rise over 2% this week, boosted by Russia and Saudi Arabia’s oil production cuts announced earlier in the week and by upbeat US economic data.
The US Dollar is falling across the board. The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback versus a basket of major currencies, trades at +0.04% at the time of writing at 103.09 and is set to rise 0.17% across the week, its third straight week of gains.
The US dollar is trading quietly as investors look ahead to the release of the US farm payroll report. Expectations are for the report today to show that job creation in the US remained strong in June, rising by 225,000, although this is down from a 339K in May. While this is a sizeable decrease, it is still strong growth. The unemployment rate is expected to take lower to 3.6%, down from 3.7%. Average wage growth is expected to hold steady at 4.3%.
The data comes after yesterday’s ADP payroll report, which said that private payrolls raised by 497k in June, well ahead of the 228k forecast and up from 278k in May. The ISM services PMI was also well ahead of expectations at 53.9, up from 50.3, indicating solid growth in the US.
