HONG KONG, June 18 (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar rose to its highest in more \u200bthan a year on Thursday after a hawkish hold from the Federal Reserve triggered bets on \u200crate hikes, while yen weakness drew verbal warnings from Japanese officials.<\/p>\n
The U.S. central bank held rates steady in a 3.50% to 3.75% range as new chair Kevin Warsh opened his era in charge with a sweeping policy review. Nearly half of policymakers now expect a hike this \u200byear as inflation concerns mount.<\/p>\n
The Fed funds futures market is fully pricing in a rate hike by \u200bOctober, according to LSEG data, with a strong retail sales reading further adding to hawkish bets.<\/p>\n
The \u2060euro fell 0.3% to $1.146, while sterling was down 0.54% at $1.322 , both at their lowest in more than two months.<\/p>\n
The \u200bdollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen, euro and sterling, rose 0.36% to \u200b100.71, the highest since May 2025.<\/p>\n
It surged 0.85% the previous session, its biggest single-day jump in over three months.<\/p>\n
“The Fed\u2019s hawkish policy update is threatening to trigger a bullish break out for the U.S. dollar,” said Lee Hardman, senior currency analyst at MUFG.<\/p>\n
“The U.S. dollar \u200bhas derived support from the sharp adjustment higher for short-term U.S. rates … more than offsetting the dampening impact from \u200bthe U.S.-Iran deal announcement over the weekend,” he said.<\/p>\n
Oil prices eased on Thursday after the U.S. and Iran signed an interim agreement that would \u200cend \u2060the Iran war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and waive U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil, sapping some strength from the safe-haven greenback.<\/p>\n
Yet the fall in oil prices did little to stop the dollar rising on rate hike bets.<\/p>\n
“Markets are examining whether the Strait of Hormuz can be reopened for free passage,” said Kimmy Tong, global market and FX strategist \u200bat Everbright Securities International.<\/p>\n
“Until that \u200bis confirmed, sentiment favouring \u2060a stronger dollar should continue to dominate” considering the Fed’s tightening bias, she said.<\/p>\n
The risk-sensitive Australian dollar was last down 0.1%.<\/p>\n
The Japanese yen weakened to as low as 160.90 per \u200bdollar, its lowest since July 2024, wiping out gains made after Tokyo’s intervention on \u200bApril 30.<\/p>\n
The \u2060renewed slide prompted a fresh response from the government, with officials reiterating their readiness to support the currency.<\/p>\n
“We are ready to respond appropriately to currency moves as needed at any time,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told a press conference on Thursday \u2060when asked \u200babout the yen’s decline.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, the Bank of England looks on course to \u200bkeep interest rates unchanged at 3.75% later on Thursday as it assesses what a tentative truce in the Iran war means for inflation.<\/p>\n
Reporting by Jiaxing \u200bLi in Hong Kong; Additional reporting by Harry Robertson in London; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Kevin Buckland and Joe Bavier<\/p>\n
Disclaimer:\u00a0The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and\/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HONG KONG, June 18 (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar rose to its highest in more \u200bthan a year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1108,1095,1100,1102,1094,1105,1098,1096,1099,1106,1085,1107,1097,8,1084,1109,1091,1110,1093,33,1088,1089,1087,1090,180,1092,1104,1111,1086,1103,1101],"class_list":["post-43229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-bank-forecasts","tag-bitcoin-news","tag-central-banks","tag-charts","tag-crypto-news","tag-currency","tag-economic-reports","tag-ethereum-news","tag-forecasts","tag-global-economy","tag-gold","tag-international-policy","tag-interviews","tag-japan","tag-kitco-news","tag-market-nugget","tag-metals","tag-mining-minutes","tag-mining-news","tag-nihon","tag-palladium","tag-pgm","tag-platinum","tag-platinum-group-metals","tag-politics","tag-precious-metals","tag-rare-earth-metals","tag-roundups","tag-silver","tag-tech-metals","tag-us-dollar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}