Dollar Index Holds At Five-Week High As Rate Cut Bets Pushed Back

Published on Jan 18, 2024 11:16

The dollar index continued to hover around a five week high attained in the previous session as better-than-expected US Retail Sales data pushed back expectations of rate cuts. US retail sales climbed by 0.6 percent in December after rising by 0.3 percent in November. Meanwhile, a report released by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday showed an unexpected uptick in U.S. industrial production in the month of December. The Fed said industrial production inched up by 0.1 percent in December. US treasury yields are hovering above 4% as Federal Reserve Christopher Waller also pushed back this week against aggressive bets on policy easing. The dollar index that measures the greenback against a basket of currencies has pulled back slightly to 103.10, although at a multi-week high. Among basket currencies, EURUSD is slightly up by 0.15% at $1.0918 whereas GBPUSD pared some of its sharp gains seen yesterday and is staying flat at $1.2684.