- The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback's strength against six major currencies, finished Tuesday's session up 0.3 percent after hitting a 15-month low earlier in the session, recording its first increase in seven days.
- Atlanta Federal Reserve President Dennis Lockhart said on Tuesday that he does not see negative interest rates in the United States on the horizon.
"I do not think negative interest rates are in the offing here in the United States anytime soon," Lockhart said following a speech in Jacksonville, Florida.
Lockhart also said it was too soon to say if negative interest rates in Europe and Japan will be beneficial in the long term.
Lockhart said that he is also worried that lackluster U.S. first-quarter gross domestic product growth "turns out, in fact, to be persistent" and that he is currently ambivalent on whether the U.S. central bank should raise rates in June.
The U.S. economy has been sending mixed signals since the start of the year, he noted, with solid consumer fundamentals not showing through in robust growth in domestic demand and wage growth still tepid. But the time being he favored strong jobs gains over the growth data as the more reliable signal of the health of the U.S. economy
Atlanta Federal Reserve President Dennis Lockhart said on Tuesday that Britain's vote on whether to stay in the European Union could "loom large" as the U.S. central bank contemplates whether to raise interest rates at its next policy meeting.
"Brexit could be a source of heightened global uncertainty," Lockhart said in prepared remarks before the World Affairs Council of Jacksonville, Florida, adding it "has some potential to loom large as we approach the June meeting."
- Britain's referendum on European Union membership, which takes place a week after the Fed next meets on June 14-15.
- Big U.S. banks would have greater protection from hedge funds in a future financial crisis under a Federal Reserve proposal released on Tuesday to require that some investors wait 48 hours before cutting ties with failing lenders.
The two-day pause is meant to prevent a chaotic unraveling of investments like what was seen during the 2008 financial crisis and failure of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
At the time, desperate investors tried to void ties to Lehman after it sought bankruptcy protection, helping to spread panic in global financial markets.
- Oil prices fell for a second day on Tuesday, retreating further from the year's highs hit last week, as rising output renewed worries about the global glut of crude, the U.S. dollar rebounded and equity markets weakened.
Output from the biggest oil producers in the Middle East jumped last month or could surge in the near term, data showed this week, ahead of a U.S. government report on Wednesday likely to cite record high crude stockpiles.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 settled down 86 cents, or 1.9 percent, at $44.97 a barrel.
U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures CLc1 fell $1.13, or 2.5 percent, to $43.65.
Reference: Reuters
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