NEW YORK (Reuters) – The dollar pared losses against the euro and yen on Tuesday after data showed that some underlying measures of inflation remained relatively elevated in November even as price gains came in broadly as expected.
Headline inflation edged up 0.1% last month after being unchanged in October. In the 12 months through November, the CPI increased 3.1% after rising 3.2% in October. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the CPI would be unchanged on the month and gain 3.1% on a year-on-year basis.
Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the CPI increased 0.3% in November after climbing 0.2% in the prior month. But so-called supercore inflation, which tracks the cost of services minus energy and housing, rose 0.44% in the month up from 0.22% in October.
“Once we dig into the data we can see that some of the underlying numbers are perhaps a little sticky, particularly the supercore numbers,” said Shaun Osborne, chief foreign exchange strategist at Scotiabank in Toronto.
“Generally we’ve seen sufficient progress on inflation to keep a rate cut as the next move, but it’s really about the timing at this point and these numbers suggest that we still need to see some further progress on some of these underlying measures before the Fed will be comfortable cutting interest rates,” Osborne added.
Traders pushed back expectations on when the Federal Reserve is likely to begin cutting interest rates to May, from March, after data on Friday showed that employers added more jobs than expected in November.
Fed officials are due to release their updated economic and interest rate projections at the conclusion of the U.S. central bank’s two-day meeting on Wednesday. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell may also push back against expectations for a rate cut in the first half of 2024.
The dollar was last steady on the day against a basket of currencies at 104.04. It got as low as 103.48 immediately after the data, before bouncing.
The euro was last up 0.06% at $1.0770. It was around $1.0809 before the data. The greenback was last down 0.31% at 145.73 Japanese yen, after earlier getting as low as 144.75.
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Currency bid prices at 9:40AM (1440 GMT)
Description RIC Last U.S. Close Pct Change YTD Pct High Bid Low Bid
Previous Change
Session
Dollar index 104.0400 104.0600 +0.00% 0.531% +104.0900 +103.4800
Euro/Dollar $1.0770 $1.0765 +0.06% +0.52% +$1.0830 +$1.0762
Dollar/Yen 145.7300 146.1950 -0.31% +11.16% +146.1850 +144.7450
Euro/Yen 156.96 157.31 -0.22% +11.88% +157.3400 +156.5100
Dollar/Swiss 0.8772 0.8787 -0.17% -5.13% +0.8785 +0.8724
Sterling/Dollar $1.2519 $1.2555 -0.27% +3.53% +$1.2615 +$1.2520
Dollar/Canadian 1.3609 1.3574 +0.26% +0.44% +1.3610 +1.3545
Aussie/Dollar $0.6544 $0.6568 -0.33% -3.97% +$0.6612 +$0.6545
Euro/Swiss 0.9447 0.9452 -0.05% -4.54% +0.9479 +0.9435
Euro/Sterling 0.8602 0.8571 +0.36% -2.74% +0.8603 +0.8558
NZ $0.6108 $0.6124 -0.25% -3.80% +$0.6169 +$0.6107
Dollar/Dollar
Dollar/Norway 11.0070 10.9540 +0.46% +12.13% +11.0110 +10.8800
Euro/Norway 11.8578 11.7908 +0.57% +12.96% +11.8612 +11.7537
Dollar/Sweden 10.5094 10.4864 +0.28% +0.98% +10.5115 +10.4209
Euro/Sweden 11.3205 11.2892 +0.28% +1.53% +11.3213 +11.2637
(Reporting By Karen Brettell; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibilty for its content.