Euro-dollar rate flat as treasury yields jump

NEW YORK CITY: The euro-dollar exchange rate was little changed Monday despite another jump in US Treasury yields that put more upward pressure on greenback interest rates.

But emerging economy currencies, including the Indian rupee, Indonesia's rupiah, the South African rand, and others, continued to sink against the dollar on the rate trend.

At 2100 GMT Monday the euro was at $1.3334, up from $1.3326 late Friday.

The dollar was little changed against the Japanese currency, edging up to 97.56 yen from 97.53 yen.

The euro was at 130.09 yen, compared to 130.02 on Friday.

The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bill jumped to 2.88 percent, the highest level in two years, up from 2.83 percent on Friday and 2.49 percent one month ago.

The rise has turned into higher bank lending rates, which economists fear could start to hit the housing industry as it recovers.

But that jump has not translated into a stronger dollar against the euro. Currency traders appeared to be less convinced than bond investors of the Federal Reserve's trajectory toward tighter monetary policy.

Analysts at Barclays said traders are waiting to see what shows up in the minutes of the Fed's July policy meeting, to be released on Wednesday.

"We believe there is a possibility of a dovish surprise," they said, pointing to recent weak inflation data that could bias the Fed toward keeping its stimulus program running.

But Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange, Inc., said that as long as the record confirms the Fed's direction toward beginning to reduce the $85 billion a month stimulus, the yields should hold and the dollar should rise.

"Minutes that suggest the Fed is leaning toward reducing policy stimulus next month should keep Treasury bond yields biased higher and eventually see the greenback push higher," he said.

The British pound meanwhile also gained ground on the dollar, rising to $1.5648 from $1.5619, and the dollar fell against the Swiss franc, to 0.9239 franc from 0.9259 franc.