(Bloomberg) -- The dollar climbed after US headline and core CPI data was in-line with estimates. Brent crude oil remained above $92 per barrel even as the International Energy Agency agreed to the largest-ever discharge of oil reserves in an effort to contain oil prices.
- The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index is up 0.2%, reaching a daily high during the morning session in New York, after data showed underlying US inflation slowed in February from a month earlier
- 10-year Treasury yields are up 7bp at 4.22%
- The IEA said it would release a record 400 million barrels from its emergency oil reserves
- The decision by the IEA to release barrels from its emergency reserves “is going to have a fairly limited/short term impact on oil markets,” said Andrew Hazlett, a foreign-exchange trader at Monex Inc. “Those barrels represent less than 3 weeks of consumption. That kind of implies that conflict will not be over ‘very soon’ — meaning dollar will continue to serve as a haven, and dollar borrowing will stay relatively elevated for countries to purchase inventory”
- USD/JPY rises 0.6% to 158.96
- EUR/USD falls 0.4% to 1.157; it earlier rose to 1.1645 after Governing Council member Peter Kazimir said the Iran war and its impact on inflation risk forcing the European Central Bank to raise interest rates sooner than anticipated
- AUD/USD rallies 0.5% to 0.7154, earlier reaching 0.7186, the highest since June 2022
- Westpac, NAB, and UBS are predicting the RBA will raise rates by 25bps at its policy meeting next week, while Goldman Sachs sees an increase on March 17 as “likely”
- GBP/USD little changed at 1.3415
- USD/CAD rises 0.1% to 1.3599
- USD/NOK up 0.1% to 9.6483
- Foreign exchange strategists at Barclays recommend fading NOK by going long EUR/NOK
Reporting by Miles J. Herszenhorn
