The U.S. dollar strengthened against the other major currencies in the early European session on Monday, in the wake of Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen’s remarks signalling that the Fed is likely to start raising interest rates gradually later this year.
In a speech at a San Francisco Fed conference on Friday, Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen said an interest rate hike may well be warranted later this year but stressed that any increase in interest rates would be gradual.
Athens is set to present a list of economic reform proposals to international creditors today after Tsipras’s earlier reform plans met resistance from EU leaders.
Greece Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in remarks published Sunday he is looking for a “happy ending” in his current talks with EU creditors. “I am confident there will be a happy ending soon to this first phase of the negotiations, and to normalizing the situation,” said Tsipras.
In the Asian trading, the U.S. dollar held steady against its major rivals.
In the early European trading today, the U.S. dollar rose to a 5-day high of 119.68 against the yen, from an early low of 119.09. The greenback may test resistance near the 121.00 region.
Pulling away from early lows of 1.0894 against the euro, 1.4900 the pound and 0.9603 against the Swiss franc, the greenback edged up to 1.0825, 1.4801 and 0.9672, respectively. If the greenback extends its uptrend, it is likely to find resistance around 1.06 against the euro, 1.46 against the pound and 1.00 against the Swiss franc.
Against the Australia, the New Zealand and the Canadian dollars, the greenback advanced to near 2-week highs of 0.7696, 0.7696 and 1.2649 from early lows of 0.7746, 0.7565 and 1.2594, respectively. The greenback is likely to find resistance near 0.75 against the aussie, 0.71 against the kiwi and 1.28 against the loonie.
Looking ahead, preliminary German consumer price index for March, Canada industrial product price and raw materials price index – both for February and U.S. personal income and spending data and pending home sales data for February are slated for release in the European session.
At 9:00 am ET, European Union’s financial affairs chief Pierre Moscovici is expected to speak to the EU parliament committee in Brussels.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com