Dollar firm, sterling on the defensive over Brexit impact fears
The dollar firmed in early Asian trading on Tuesday, while recently beleaguered sterling wallowed close to recent lows on continuing fears about the likely impact on Britain from exiting the European Union.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, added 0.1 percent to 96.987 .DXY.
Seven Federal Reserve officials are scheduled to speak this week, with the main focus being Chair Janet Yellen on Friday and New York Fed President William Dudley on Wednesday, say currency analyst with BNP Paribas. “We think the speeches will continue to signal a likely December rate hike, currently priced around 65%,” BNP Paribas says. “On the data front in the U.S., we think retail sales for September (due out Friday) will have increased strongly, with the release of the iPhone 7 likely to boost control-group sales. We continue to think the USD (U.S. dollar) remains vulnerable in the very short term, as gains in U.S. front-end rates have been outpaced by increased inflation expectations, pushing U.S. real rates deeper into negative territory. We think the USD will ultimately gain later in the year, as the December FOMC meeting nears and market can move to more fully price in further tightening, but for now we see more scope for the USD to give back ground.
Oil hits one-year high as Russia ready to join output caps
Oil prices jumped as much as 3 percent on Monday, with Brent hitting a one-year high, after Russia said it was ready to join OPEC in curbing crude output and Algeria called for similar commitments from other non-OPEC producers.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 rose to its highest since June 9 at $51.60, before easing to end the session at $51.35, up $1.54, or 3.1 percent.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said an output freeze or even a production cut were likely the only right decisions to maintain energy sector stability. "Russia is ready to join the joint measures to cap production and is calling for other oil exporters to join," Putin said, speaking at an energy congress in Istanbul.
Reference: Reuters, KITCO
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