The dollar made a steady start to the week in Asia on Monday but stayed below Friday peaks, as currency traders seek a path between markets’ volatile rate projections and central bankers vowing a wait-and-see approach despite surging inflation. The next big test of faith in the Federal Reserve’s insistence on patience looms on Wednesday when U.S. inflation data is expected to show consumer growth running hot.
U.S. consumer prices on Wednesday are expected to show price pressures running at the hottest pace in three decades amid supply-chain bottlenecks and higher energy, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
The October and November CPI numbers “are super important considerations to which way the Fed is going to go,” Mahjabeen Zaman, senior investment specialist at Citigroup, said on Bloomberg Radio. “We are of the view that there is upside risk in both these CPI numbers and as a result, there is actually a risk the Fed might actually accelerate the pace of asset purchases.”
Further on the economic front, China posted a record monthly trade surplus in October as exports surged, underscoring support for the Chinese economy that’s slowed sharply in recent months. In the U.S., the House on Friday passed the biggest U.S. infrastructure package in decades.
Elsewhere, oil advanced as traders weighed the odds of a release of crude from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve after OPEC+ resisted a plea from President Joe Biden to boost supplies more quickly. Bitcoin is trading around $66,000.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
3rd Party Cookies
This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.
Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.
Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!
