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Fed Officials Split in July on Whether Rate Hike Needed Soon
Yields on two-year notes, the coupon securities most sensitive to Fed policy expectations, fell two basis points to 0.73 percent.
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Gold futures fell 0.9% Friday while silver slid 2.25%.
Meanwhile, Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart said the U.S. economy is strong enough to withstand at least one increase this year.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan.MIAPJ0000PUS was up 0.4 per ent.
The US dollar hit a seven-week low against a basket of major currencies yesterday, after minutes from the US Federal Reserve’s meeting last month showed policymakers were divided on raising interest rates in the near term.
Macro economic data from the world’s largest economy has been mixed so far and markets will be looking for some direction from comments expected from St. Louis Fed President James Bullard as well as the release of the Fed’s July policy meeting minutes later in the session.
The dollar index dipped 0.1 per cent to 94.49, having lost about 0.7 per cent so far this week, during which it touched a 7-week low of 94.426 on Tuesday.
The Fed made a decision to hold rates between 0.25% and 0.5% at its July meeting, but several policymakers expressed concern that low interests could have a negative impact on financial stability.
William Dudley, head of the Fed’s NY branch, said a rate hike was possible next month and that Wall Street investors were too “complacent” about the prospect of higher rates over the next year.
“Until we have clarity around the United States rate hike, gold is going to remain range bound between US$1,320 and US$1,370”, said Hamza Kahn, ING Bank’s senior strategist.
The FOMC has left rates unchanged since voting in December to raise them from near-zero levels, marking the first increase in almost a decade.
The dollar sagged on Thursday and the yen firmed 0.4 percent to 99.87 yen per dollar.
The euro edged up 0.2 per cent to $1.131with the common currency on track to rise more than 1 per cent this week.
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The Fed kept policy rates unchanged at the fifth consecutive monetary policy meet in July amid concerns over the fallout of the Brexit vote while fluctuations in labour market data clouded economic outlook. “People had been speculating that Japanese investors could remove currency hedging on their foreign bond investment because of recent rise in hedging costs and the yen has risen considerably”.