NEW YORK: The dollar slipped broadly on Wednesday as investors awaited a Federal Reserve policy decision amid speculation it might signal a slowdown in the pace of future rate hikes.
The central bank will release its policy statement at 2 p.m. (1800 GMT), with investors widely expecting a 75 basis points (bps) rate hike, the fourth such increase in a row.
But for the December meeting, the futures market is split on the odds of a 75- or 50-bps increase.
The euro was 0.11% higher against the dollar at $0.9885, while against the Japanese yen, the dollar fell 0.8% to 147.03 yen.
“The typical calm before the FOMC storm is what we’re seeing this morning, across all asset classes really,” said Michael Brown, head of market intelligence at payments firm Caxton in London.
“I doubt we’ll see much in the way of movement until the Fed decision; though the risks after it, in my view, are skewed towards USD upside on a more hawkish statement than expected.” Growing expectations that the Fed may dial down the aggressiveness of its interest rate hikes has weighed on the dollar in recent weeks and a blow to those expectations could lift the dollar.
“We think the Fed will want to maintain optionality of hiking 50 bps or 75 bps in December, as there are still another two CPI (inflation) reports and two NFP (non-farm payroll report) releases ahead of that meeting,” Daria Parkhomenko, FX strategist at RBC Capital Markets.
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