- Indian Rupee (INR) falls, snapping two days of gains
- Chinese industrial profits fall
- US Dollar (USD) rises versus its major peers
- Fed Governor Christopher Waller is due to speak
The US Dollar Indian Rupee (USD/INR) exchange rate is rising after two days of losses. The pair rose 0.04% in the previous session, settling on Tuesday at 83.34. At 19:00 UTC, USD/INR trades +0.04% at 83.37 and trades in a range of 83.29 to 83.42.
The Indian rupee fell to a record low on Wednesday after aggressive dollar buying by local oil companies importers and amid equity-related outflows. Meanwhile, the central bank is believed to have stepped in to have capped losses.
The Rupee, along with its Asian peers, also came under pressure following data from China overnight.
Chinese industrial profits jumped to 10.2%, although this was from a very low base the year before, and so it failed to impress the market.
The US Dollar is rising across the board. The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback versus a basket of major currencies, trades at +0.06% at the time of writing at 104.30, extending gains from the previous session.
The US dollar is heading modestly higher for a second straight day amid a quiet economic calendar. There was no fresh high-impacting economic data for investors to digest, and instead, investors are looking ahead to a speech by Federal Reserve governor Christopher Waller.
Christopher Waller is a known hawk, and his views on the economy, given the hotter-than-expected inflation readings, will be interesting.
His comments come after the Federal Reserve left interest rates on hold last week at their 22-year high and signaled that it was looking to cut rates three times throughout the rest of this year.
Looking ahead tomorrow, there is plenty of data for investors to sink their teeth into, including the final reading for Q4 GDP, which is expected to confirm the unrealized 3.2% reading. Also, US jobless claims are expected to increase modestly to 215,000, up from 210,000.
Finally, the University of Michigan consumer sentiment data is expected to show a slight easing in sentiment to 76.5, down from 76.9.
Stronger-than-expected data could raise questions about the Federal Reserve’s ability to cut interest rates so aggressively this year.
