US Dollar Trades Bullish Even as Third Rate Cut by Fed Expected This Week

Early on Monday, the US dollar is trading bullish against its major peers ahead of the upcoming Federal Reserve meeting later this week. The greenback has risen to trade close to a two-month high against the Japanese yen as the markets turn their attention to the Fed meeting on October 30 and the BOJ meeting the very next day.

At the time of writing, the US dollar index DXY is trading around 97.86 even though markets are widely expecting the Fed to announce another rate cut of 0.25%. The dollar remains supported as markets hope that the improvement in US-China trade tensions could turn the Fed hawkish following the upcoming rate cut. As this rate cut is mostly priced in, the US dollar continues to trade bullish, especially against the Pound and the Euro over uncertainty around Brexit.

The US dollar gained some strength late last week after the US Trade Representative’s office confirmed that the US and China were close to finalizing some aspects of the phase one trade deal. This statement was confirmed by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce over the weekend which stated that ‘technical consultations’ on certain issues of the partial trade deal had concluded.