Bloomberg,
(10/10) -- The dollar had the biggest gain in a month as minutes of the
Federal Reserve’s last meeting showed most policy makers said the
central bank was likely to reduce the pace of its $85 billion in monthly
bond purchases this year.The U.S. currency rose for a second day versus the yen as President
Barack Obama nominated Janet Yellen to run the Fed, fueling bets it will
maintain policies to spur economic growth. The minutes of the Federal
Open Market Committee meeting, which took place before the Capital Hill
deadlock over the budget and debt limit, showed a lengthy debate over
economic progress. The pound slid as U.K. industrial production
unexpectedly shrank.“The FOMC minutes appear to have given a boost to the dollar as
markets focus on the key headline that most FOMC members see tapering by
the end of the year,” Vassili Serebriakov, a foreign-exchange
strategist at BNP Paribas SA in New York, said in a phone interview.
“Positions against the dollar have been vulnerable for a while and are
starting to unwind.”The Bloomberg U.S. Dollar Index added 0.3 percent to 1,013.22 at 5
p.m. New York time and jumped as much as 0.6 percent, the biggest
intraday advance since Sept. 5. It closed on Oct. 3 at 1,007.87, the
lowest since Feb. 20.The greenback gained 0.5 percent to 97.34 yen and rose as much as 0.8
percent, the most since Sept. 19 on an intraday basis. The dollar
appreciated 0.4 percent to $1.3524 per euro and touched $1.3486, the
strongest level since Sept. 30. Europe’s shared currency rose 0.1
percent to 131.65 yen.
The JPMorgan Global FX Volatility Index rose to 8.84 percent after
falling yesterday to as low as 8.68 percent, the least since May 9. The
2013 average is 9.37 percent.
