Makro

The US Dollar (USD) pares losses against its main peers on Friday, as hopes for a swift end to the war in Iran fade again, following an exchange of fire in the Strait of Hormuz.

The US Dollar Index (DXY), which measures the value of the US Dollar (USD) against six major currencies, is inching lower after registering modest gains in the previous day and trading around 98.20 during the Asian hours on Friday.

The US Dollar Index (DXY) is trading with a softer tone near the 98.10 area as markets continue reacting to rapidly shifting headlines surrounding the potential peace agreement between the United States (US) and Iran.

Banco de Mexico (Banxico) reduced borrowing costs by 25 basis points on Thursday, as expected by market participants, from 6.75% to 6.50%, even though the central bank revealed that the “balance of risks for the trajectory of inflation within the forecast horizon remains biased to the upside.”

The morning belonged to the deal: Asia had ripped overnight, with the Nikkei 225 clearing 62,000 for the first time on a session that gained north of 5%, and US futures came in primed for another leg of the Iran ceasefire trade.

DBS Group Research’s Radhika Rao highlights Bank Indonesia’s latest steps to manage FX volatility and support the Indonesian Rupiah. The central bank has tightened documentation thresholds for Dollar purchases, continued bond buying and enabled selected dealers to access offshore NDFs.

Mary Daly, President of the Federal Reserve (Fed) Bank of San Francisco, said on Bloomberg TV on Thursday that she doesn’t see evidence that longer-run inflation expectations are up. She also claimed that wage rises are consistent with the overall 2% inflation.

The New York Federal Reserve (Fed) released its Survey of Consumer Expectations for April on Thursday, which showed that American households expect prices to rise in the short term. For the medium- to long-term horizon, inflation expectations were unchanged.

Scotiabank strategists Shaun Osborne and Eric Theoret report the Euro (EUR) is modestly higher, extending a sentiment-driven recovery despite softer expectations for European Central Bank (ECB) tightening.

Beth Hammack, President of the Federal Reserve (Fed) Bank of Cleveland, in an interview on a public radio station on Thursday. She claimed that she sees a lot of uncertainty in the economic outlook and that the Fed should be more neutral in its policy stance given this uncertainty.

Nomura's research analysts note that the the central bank of Sweden, Riksbank kept its policy rate at 1.75% in May, maintaining a wait-and-see stance as weak inflation offsets upside risks from global energy prices and the Iran war.