Emerging market stocks were flat in cautious trading while Russia’s rouble rose on higher oil prices.
Emerging market currencies have had a decent week of gains on the back of a weakening dollar, which suggests most traders have already scaled back their expectations of the Fed making any changes to its ultra-loose monetary policy.
“The reason is likely to be the uncertainty surrounding the spread of the Delta variant,” Thu Lan Nguyen, FX and emerging markets analyst said.
“Why should Powell of all things announce something, if the next monetary policy meeting is taking place only in about a month? And before that, important data such as the US labor market report and consumer price data for August are yet to be published.”
The MSCI’s index for developing world currencies is up 0.7 percent for the week, set for its best performance in three months, while its stocks counterpart is up almost 4 percent for the week as it eyes its biggest weekly gain in nearly seven months.
Russia’s rouble strengthened 0.6 percent against the dollar as it found support in rising oil prices amid worries about supply disruptions as energy companies began shutting in production in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of a potential hurricane forecast to hit on the weekend.
