Dollar rises as markets digest central bank news, look to year-end

NEW YORK/LONDON: The dollar rose on Friday as markets approached the end of a busy week in which major central banks laid out plans to unwind pandemic-era stimulus.

The greenback got a lift in morning trading in New York after a Federal Reserve official said in a television interview that the Fed will gain “optionality” to raise interest rates in 2022 by ending bond purchases by March. Central banks are moving at different speeds to adjust their monetary policies, underlining deep uncertainties about how the fast-spreading Omicron coronavirus variant will hit the global economy and how persistently high inflation will be.

The dollar index rose 0.2% on the day to 96.1970. The euro and sterling fell about 0.3% after gains the two previous days and stood at $1.1299 and $1.3284, respectively, at 1454 GMT.

The Fed official, John Williams, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, appeared on CNBC in one of few scheduled events on Friday of market interest after two intense days of central bank meetings.