Dollar Trades Higher vs. EUR on Rate Outlook

The U.S dollar held near a 2-½ month high on the EUR and kept a firmer footing against the Japanese yen on Wednesday as the market waited to see if the U.S. Federal Reserve would give any signal on when Interest Rates might begin to rise.

The greenback was near a 1-week high against the Yen before reports forecast to show U.S. housing starts rebounded and consumer prices gained. Traders increased bets that the Fed will raise its policy rate by June as the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) began a 2 day rate-setting meeting.

The U.S dollar traded at $1.4542 per EUR from $1.4538 yesterday when it reached $1.4504, the strongest level since Oct. 2nd. The U.S. currency was at 89.58 yen from 89.61 yesterday after reaching 89.95, the strongest level since Dec. 7th.

Fed policy makers are expected to keep benchmark rates steady and retain the vast majority of the forward-looking portions of its statement on the economy due this afternoon. With data pointing to the upside in the U.S. economy, there is a growing speculation that there will be a change in rhetoric on monetary easing. Analysts said investors were keen to close short positions built up in the Dollar all year before 2009 book closings and that this may support the USD for the rest of the week and into next.

Pound Down on Weaker than EU Outlook

The pound started the week down versus the euro and the U.S. dollar as sentiment towards other wealthy nations in the world remain more positive than the U.K.’s economic perspectives, forcing investors to abandon pound priced assets to inject capital in more attractive currencies backed by fast recovering nations.

After a Moody’s report featuring world’s wealthiest nations in which the U.K. was rated as ”resilient” against better rating of its European neighbors, France and Germany, considered “resistant”, the pound tumbled further versus the euro, and also went down versus the greenback as the interest rate outlook in the U.S. changed, with speculations suggesting hikes for the mid-term future, forming a winning pattern on the dollar charts versus most of the 16 main traded currencies. Despite the U.K.’s evidences of economic recovery, the process has been slower than the resilience perceived overseas, in emergent countries and commodity exporter nations like Canada or Australia, whose currencies have been gaining consistently versus the pound in 2009.

The outlook for the pound remains negative as investors opt for higher-yielding options in risk fueled sessions, and prefer to take safer bets in moments of strong risk aversion, leaving almost no appeal for pound-priced assets, which are likely to remain less attractive than average at least until the end of the year.

GBP/USD traded at 1.6335 as of 10:15 GMT from a previous rate of 1.6470 in the intraday. EUR/GBP traded at 0.9092 from a previous rate of 0.9042.

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