The dollar was on track for its worst daily loss in nearly a month on Thursday as U.S. manufacturing data and comments by Federal Reserve officials reinforced expectations the Federal Reserve will likely skip an interest rate hike at its upcoming meeting.
The euro recovered from a two-month low on Thursday after European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde said further policy tightening was necessary.
The dollar index, which measures the currency against a basket of six peers, fell 0.547% at 103.580, off a two-month high of 104.7 touched on Wednesday as investors trimmed bets the Fed will raise interest rates this month.
The euro was last up 0.64% to $1.0757, coming off a two-month low of $1.0635 on Wednesday, after some European countries released national inflation data showing signs that price pressures have eased.While data on Thursday showed that inflation in the 20 nations sharing the euro eased to 6.1% in May from 7.0% in April, below expectations for 6.3% in a Reuters poll of economists, the current level is more than three times the ECB's 2% inflation target.
The sterling was last trading at $1.2524, up 0.67% on the day, while the Australian dollar rose 0.98% versus the greenback at $0.657.
Crude prices settled up as much as 3% Thursday, paring the 7% loss from three previous days of trading, as market participants braced for the possibility that OPEC+ would announce another output cut at its meeting this weekend — against bets for a stay. New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, crude settled up $2.01, or nearly 3%, at $70.10 per barrel. In the previous session, it hit a four-week low of $67.07.London-traded Brent crude settled up $1.68, or 2.3%, at $74.28. The global benchmark for oil hit a four-week low of $71.53 on Wednesday. RBI REFERENCE RATE : USD:82.45,EURO:88.06,JPY:59.02,GBP: 102.55 |