Dollar Up, Investors Keep an Eye on Central Banks’ Moves

The dollar was up on Tuesday morning in Asia. It hovered on Tuesday just above a one-week low as a percentage-point Federal Reserve interest rate hike this month may be less than expected.

The US Dollar Index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies edged up 0.11% to 107.49 by 11:34 PM ET (3:34 AM GMT).

The USD/JPY pair inched down 0.02% to 138.10.

The AUD/USD pair gained 0.31% to 0.6833, and the NZD/USD pair was up 0.21% to 0.6164.

The USD/CNY pair inched up 0.07% to 6.7479, while GBP/USD pair inched down 0.09% to 1.1944.

Data last week showed that U.S. inflation was already at a four-decade high and continued to accelerate in June, as investors bet on supersized easing. However, figures from last Friday showed an easing of consumer inflation expectations to the lowest in a year.

Traders in futures contracts shifted their bets in favor of a 0.75-percentage-point increase at the upcoming meeting, who had been leaning toward a full-percentage-point interest rate rise.

Investors are keeping an eye on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline that is scheduled to reopen Thursday following maintenance.

Despite the uncertainty, the European Central Bank is to raise interest rates on Thursday for the first time in more than a decade. Investors are betting on a half-point hike due to heated inflation.

“The balance of risks is tilted to a weaker EUR (whereas) the path of least resistance for the USD is to continue trending higher because of the poor global growth outlook,” Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Carol Kong wrote in a client note, referring to the dollar’s role as a safe haven.