HONG KONG- The dollar index was holding steady at 95.561, having moved little this week, after a volatile two weeks.
The Aussie and Kiwi dollars held recent gains to hover near multi-week highs on Thursday in line with investors’ recent turn towards riskier assets like equities, but currencies were little changed ahead of US inflation data later in the day.
That data could provide new clues for traders about the pace of the Federal Reserve’s monetary tightening, with hotter-than expected consumer price readings potentially signaling the need for more aggressive interest rate hikes.
The Australian dollar was last at $0.7174, not far from the $0.7194 touched the day before, which was near a three-week high.
Analysts at Westpac in a morning note to clients pointed to the “explosion higher in metals markets, lift in global risk sentiment and a softishUS dollar” as factors supporting the Aussie, adding “a close above $0.7183 would suggest a further extension towards $0.7225 and possibly $0.7275.”
MSCI’s World Index is up about 2 percent this week after a bruising January, helped by a string of upbeat earnings and a few positive headlines suggesting tensions between the West and Russia over Ukraine may be easing.
The New Zealand dollar, which reached a two-week high of $0.66975 on Wednesday, was at $0.6682.
The improved risk sentiment also weighed a little on the safe haven yen, which was at 115.61 per dollar, testing the weak end of its recent range. – Reuters
