© Reuters.
Investing.com – The u.s. dollar was higher Friday, as investors focused on the expected increase in rates from the federal Reserve next week, even as the uncertainty surrounding the increases in the next year limited the gains.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.5% 97,52 at 05: 20 (10.20 am GMT).
The Fed will meet for two days next week and is expected to increase its rate, with 79.2% of chances depending on the monitoring tool of the Fed funds rate d’Investing.com.
Nevertheless, investors remain uncertain the number of rate increases in 2019, after the comments, easy-going officials of the Fed have indicated that interest rates are approaching a “fork neutral”, insofar as they did not stimulate nor hinder economic growth.
“There’s a lot of disagreement between the markets on the rate hike from the Fed in 2019, and traders are anticipating between one and four rate hikes,” said Michael McCarthy, stratge-in-chief of markets at CMC Markets.
The dollar was lower than the japanese yen, with USD / JPY down 0.07% to 113,53.
During this time, the pound was falling and the misfortune of the Brexit continued, because it seems unlikely that the party May support its agreement with Brussels at its exit from the european Union in march. The GBP / USD rose 0.04% to 1,2635.
The euro has been shaken by the strength of the dollar, with a decline of the EUR / USD from 0.6% to 1,1291.
Elsewhere, the NZD / USD fell from 0.9% to 0,6788, while the AUD / USD fell 0.8% to 0,7163. The canadian dollar fell with the USD / CAD rose by 0.3% to 1.3389.
-Reuters contributed to this report.
