Dollar Falls Amid Powell's Dovish Comments[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's comments at the economic forum were seen as generally dovish. The strength of the US economy and ongoing tight labour markets could justify further rate hikes, Powell said. But he also noted that the recent market rise in bond yields has helped tighten overall financial conditions significantly.
The official's speech turned out to be quite cautious, and, in general, signalled more in favour of maintaining monetary policy without changes. However, answering questions, the chairman did not rule out the possibility of an additional increase in the interest rate, emphasising that the current value is not the maximum.
In addition, the day before the market paid attention to a block of macroeconomic statistics from the United States. Thus, the number of initial applications for unemployment benefits for the week of October 13 decreased from 211.0k to 198.0k, while analysts expected 212.0k, and the number of repeated applications for the week of October 6 rose from 1.705 million to 1.734 million, which turned out to be significantly higher than forecasts of 1.710 million.
Investors were also somewhat disappointed by sales in the secondary housing market: in September the figure decreased by 2.0% after -0.7% in the previous month, and in absolute terms the dynamics slowed down from 4.04 million to 3.96 million, while experts expected 3.89 million. The dollar index was last down 0.27% on the day at 106.24.
EUR/USD[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]The EUR/USD pair is declining slightly, consolidating near the 1.0575 mark. The day before, the pair showed active growth, having managed to update local highs from October 12, which was associated with the speech of the head of the US Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell. The euro added 0.42% to $1.0581. The immediate resistance can be seen at 1.0591, a breakout to the upside could trigger a rise towards 1.0601. On the downside, immediate support is seen at 1.0525, a break below could take the pair towards 1.0442.
The focus of investors today will be on September statistics on the dynamics of manufacturing inflation in Germany: in monthly terms the index is expected to slightly accelerate from 0.3% to 0.4%, and in annual terms — a decrease of 14.2% after -12.6% in the previous month.
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