• Indian Rupee (INR) falls in a risk off environment
  • Oil prices fall after 3-days of gains
  • US Dollar (USD) rises after strong data
  • PMI data beat forecasts

The US Dollar Indian Rupee (USD/INR) exchange rate is rising after three days of losses. The pair fell -0.19% yesterday, settling on Wednesday at 82.67. At 15:30 UTC, USD/INR trades +0.1% at 82.74 and trades in a range of 82.67 to 82.81.

The Rupee has held up well against recent soaring USD strength, even as risk aversion dominated across the Asian session.

News that Fitch rating agency was putting the US AAA rating on negative watch unnerved investors in early trade. The agency cited concerns over the debt ceiling talks as the reason behind the move.

The Rupee has managed to hold above 82.85 -82.95 which is an important level ahead of 83.00.

Separately oil prices were falling lower after three days of gains. Russia played down expectations of an OPEC+ output cut at the coming meeting.

The US Dollar is rising across the board. The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback versus a basket of major currencies, trades +0.26% at the time of writing at 104.12, after booking gains of 0.34% in the previous session.

The US dollar is pushing higher as investors digest a series of stronger than expected U.S. economic data. The US economy grew at a faster pace in the first quarter than initially expected, with US GDP expanding at a rate of 1.3% quote on quarter, annualised, ahead of the 1.1% expected.

The stronger than expected growth was put down to higher spending by consumers, and federal and local governments consumer spending values to 3.8% upwardly revised from 3.7% in the initial estimate.

US jobless claims were also better than expected easing to 229k, well below the 245k forecast. The data suggests that the US jobs market is holding up well.

The upbeat data boosted expectations that the Could raise interest rates in the June meeting. The market is now pricing in 43% probability of a rate hike in June.