Forex - Dollar Slides Ahead of Fed Announcement By - Investing.com

Investing.com - The U.S. dollar was on the backfoot on Wednesday, as markets awaited signals from the Federal Reserve on its plans for next year.

The , which measures the greenback’s strength against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.3% at 96.28 by 3:40AM ET (09:40 GMT), hovering near a one-week low.

The U.S. central bank is almost certain to by a quarter point for a fourth time this year at the conclusion of its two-day policy meeting at 2:00PM ET (19:00 GMT) on Wednesday.

That would put the fed funds target range in a range between .

Fed Chair will hold what will be a closely-watched press conference 30 minutes after the release of the Fed's , as investors look for fresh clues on the Fed's pace of monetary policy tightening next year.

Another issue to watch will be Powell's assessment of the growing external risk from an increasingly long list of sources, including a global trade war, and recent signs of stock market turmoil.

The U.S. central bank will also release new forecasts for economic growth and interest rates, known as the , as investors look for greater signs of the Fed's likely rate hike trajectory through 2019 and beyond.

While policymakers have pointed to three increases in 2019, the market is starting to bet the U.S. central bank may halt its rate hikes altogether next year as risks to the U.S. economy mount.

However, some analysts still see the Fed raising rates 2-3 times in 2019.

"We think the Fed would raise rates twice in 2019. The Fed's reaction function will be very data dependent next year," said Stephen Innes, head of trading, APAC at Oanda.

Elsewhere, the greenback was weaker against the yen, with losing 0.15% to trade at 112.35. It earlier reached the lowest since Oct. 29 at 112.60.

The euro pushed higher, with rising 0.35% to 1.1400, its best level since Dec. 10.

The pound was also higher, with advancing 0.15% to 1.2660 amid an ongoing political deadlock over Britain’s efforts to exit the European Union.

-- Reuters contributed to this report

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.

Read Again Forex - Dollar Slides Ahead of Fed Announcement By - Investing.com : https://ift.tt/2SYQ5ea

Let's block ads! (Why?)