The euro fell today as the dollar recovered from a 3-year low as it supported by rising Treasury yields ahead of the Fed's latest meeting minutes released later today. The EURUSD currently trades at 1.2315 the lowest throughout the week. Also, the slowdown in the manufacturing and services sector was affected on the euro declining today.
Sterling fell against the US dollar for a fourth consecutive day to its lowest level since Wednesday at 1.3903, following rising unemployment rate from a record low to 4.4% in the last three months of 2017 to December, despite a 2.5% rise in average earnings as expected.
Today, markets are looking for Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, as well as a number of bank members testifying before the Treasury Committee on the latest inflation report, to come up with any new signs of a rate hike pace as inflation still higher than target. Markets already priced in rates hike next May by 70%.
Tonight, attention will be focused on the minutes of the Fed's recent meeting in which interest rates were kept unchanged, as was Janet Yellen's recent meeting as a president of the Federal Reserve Bank. Markets are waiting for further hints about the future pace of interest amid concerns about rising inflation, which recently came positive, prompting markets to expect the Fed to raise interest rates four times this year instead of 3.
In the digital currency market, Bitcoin hit its highest level in the past three weeks, rising almost 100% from its lowest level since the beginning of this year, after the South Korean financial markets regulator eased its stance on the Cryptocurrencies after weeks of trading of shutting down.
