The Australian dollar rose after the minutes of the last meeting of the Reserve Bank of Australia revealed that the decision to slow the pace of interest rate hikes to a quarter point instead of a further increase of half a point was “precisely balanced”.
The New Zealand dollar also rose after a report on consumer prices indicated a larger-than-expected rise, which bolstered expectations of further policy tightening.
The US currency hit 148,855 yen after hitting 149.10 late in the evening session for the first time since August 1990. This puts the key psychological barrier of 150 in the spotlight.
At the same time, the dollar index, which measures the performance of the US currency against six major currencies, including the yen, the euro and the British pound, fell, approaching its lowest level in a week and a half, with the recovery of European currencies thanks to a sharp shift linked to the retreat from the tax cut plan in Britain.
The dollar has strengthened against the yen by three percent since Oct. 5, when it sustainably broke the 145 barrier after spending about two weeks hovering near it, as traders jittered after the Bank of Japan’s first yen-buying intervention since 1998 on Sept. 22.
The pound fell to $1.1349, after rising 1.6 percent, on Monday, and touching $1.144 for the first time since Oct. 5.
Jeremy Hunt, who was appointed by British Prime Minister Liz Truss as chancellor on Friday, scrapped large parts of the £45 billion “mini-budget” that sparked market turmoil, sent the pound to record lows and forced the Bank of England to intervene to stem the bond market crash.
The euro settled at 0.9838 dollars, after earlier touching the highest level since the sixth of October at 0.9853 dollars.
The Australian dollar rose 0.14 percent to $0.630, as it received support after the release of the minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia meeting held on the fourth of October, which showed that the decision to slow the pace of sudden policy tightening was “precisely balanced”.
The New Zealand dollar jumped 0.57 percent to $0.567 after a report showed that consumer price inflation was still hovering near a three-decade high in the third quarter.
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