• The U.S. dollar rose to almost one-month highs against a basket of currencies on Tuesday as the Federal Reserve began a two-day policy meeting where it is widely expected to raise interest rates for the fifth time since 2015.
The dollar index .DXY hit 94.219, the highest since Nov. 14, before falling back to 94.138. The greenback rose more than 1 percent last week, its biggest weekly rise since the end of October, but is down around 9 percent this year.
• U.S. producer prices rose in November as gasoline prices surged and the cost of other goods increased, leading to the largest annual gain in nearly six years.
The fairly strong report from the Labor Department on Tuesday suggested a broad acceleration in wholesale price pressures, which could assuage concerns among some Federal Reserve officials over persistently low inflation.
The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand increased 0.4 percent last month, advancing by the same margin for three straight months. In the 12 months through November, the PPI shot up 3.1 percent. That was the biggest gain since January 2012 and followed a 2.8percent rise in October.
• The Fed is widely expected to raise its benchmark interest rate for third time this year on Wednesday. Traders see an 87.6-percent chance of a25-basis-point rate hike, according to the CME Group’s Fedwatch tool.
Investors will watch for the central bank’s forecast on future rate hikes and its view on the health of the economy.
• Virtual currency bitcoin hit another all-time peak on Tuesday, two days after the launch of the first ever bitcoin futures on a U.S. exchange and ahead of the start of another futures contract next week, as investors grew optimistic that the $20,000-mark is within reach.
Bitcoin, the world's biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, was quoted at $17,310 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange BTC=BTSP, up 5.1 percent on the day. Earlier on Tuesday bitcoin hit a record high of $17,428.42, registering a roughly 20-fold increase in its price for the year as it drew in millions of new investors.
The CME Group (CME.O) is expected to launch its futures contract on Dec. 17.
• A U.S. District Court judge ordered Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Tuesday to turn over any potential evidence that could be material for when he sentences President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
Flynn pleaded guilty earlier this month to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation during his interview in Mueller’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia.
• Oil prices fell sharply on Tuesday, as traders took profits after prices surged early to a two-year high on an unplanned closure of the pipeline that carries the largest North Sea crude oil grade.
Brent crude LCOc1 settled down $1.35, or 2 percent, at $63.34. U.S. crude CLc1 settled at $56.91 a barrel, 82 cents lower, or 1.4 percent.
Selling picked up after the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its monthly short-term energy outlook that U.S. crude oil output will rise by 780,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 10.02 million bpd in 2018.
Reference: Reuters
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