US Dollar Index at near 5 month high today as US mulls early end of monetary easing

The US Dollar Index is trading near 5 month highs today as the US Federal Reserve mulls an early end of their monetary easing programme, pushing the dollar high against most major world currencies.

Latest US Dollar Index Rate

The Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of major world currencies was at 81.385 17:59 GMT today after hitting 81.618 earlier in the day. A highe dollar tends to weigh on oil prices and other commodities.

Early End to US Monetary Easing – QE3?

The Fed has been buying $85 billion dollars a month of bonds in its efforts to stimulate the American economy. Minutes of the Federal Reserve’s January meeting released Wednesday showed differences in Fed officials thinking on the central bank’s current pace of asset purchases.

“The tone of the minutes has significantly shifted to the hawkish side,” said analysts at Morgan Stanley. “The Fed minutes have brought forward market expectations that the FOMC will end QE3 in the second half of this year rather than in the first half of 2014, which is US dollar positive.”

Meanwhile, a US regional manufacturing gauge for February unexpectedly turned negative, capping the dollars morning strength, while the euro remained under pressure after purchasing managers signaled that the euro zone is unlikely to exit from recession in the first quarter.

.

You can like our page on Facebook and keep up to date with the latest oil, gold, dollar and euro news with liveoilprices.
……………………………………………………….

Our website is now fully optimised for viewing through mobile devices, tablets and of course standard computers.

This article was written by: JR @ liveoilprices.co.uk

You can also share this story using the social media below:

Read more:
US Dollar Index at near 5 month high today as US mulls early end of monetary easing