The US dollar is moderately weakening in pairs with the euro and the pound sterling Thursday morning after a strong growth at the end of last session.
The index calculated by ICE which shows the US dollar dynamics against six currencies (euro, Swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, pound sterling and the Swedish krona), declined by 0.15% during the morning session. The day before, the indicator jumped 1 percent due to demand for defensive assets.
The euro/dollar pair was trading at $1.0601 as of 8:26 a.m. CC versus $1.0578 at the close of Wednesday’s session, with the euro adding about 0.2%.
The pound sterling is up 0.1% and is trading at $1.2070 versus $1.2057 at the close of last session.
The dollar-yen exchange rate is declining by 0.4% and is trading at 132.92 yen against 133.43 yen the day before.
Investors are waiting for the outcome of the March meeting of the European Central Bank, which will end on Thursday. Most analysts expect key interest rates to rise by 50 basis points.
Also, market participants continue to evaluate the data published a day earlier that retail sales in the USA declined 0.4% versus the previous month in February. At the same time, according to revised data, sales jumped 3.2% in January, the fastest pace since March 2021.
U.S. producer prices (PPI) rose 4.6% in February relative to the same month last year after jumping 5.7% in the first month of the year, the Labor Department said. On a month-over-month basis, the indicator declined 0.1% after rising 0.3% in January.
Many analysts now expect the Federal Reserve may leave interest rates unchanged at the end of its March meeting, although the consensus forecast still calls for a 25 basis point increase. At the same time, last week the markets allowed for a hike of 50 bps.
