Pound Little Changed Ahead of Lagarde’s First Official Speech
Investing.com - The British Pound was little changed on Monday in Asia as investors wait to hear the first speech from the new head of European Central Bank (ECB).
The U.S. Dollar Index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies was unchanged at 97.041 by 12:19 AM ET (04:19 GMT).
U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by 128,000 last month, according to the Labor Department. Analysts polled by Investing.com only had a consensus for a rise of 89,000. The outperforming data provided a boost to U.S. stock markets and sent the S&P500 to record highs.
Mohammed Apabhai, head of Asia Pacific trading strategies group at Citi, told CNBC in an interview that he thinks the U.S. dollar index could fall to as low as 85 as the Federal Reserve buy more bond assets and push bond yield down.
The dollar usually weakens when bond yields fall.
“Our latest projections are that it would weaken even further — maybe to the high 80s, perhaps even as low as 85,” said Apabhai.
“We’re basically saying that the Fed is probably going to be the most dovish of all the central banks, regardless of the fact that … they’ve put rates on pause,” he said.
On the Sino-U.S. trade developments, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday evening that negotiations about a "phase one" agreement were going well and he hoped to sign the deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a U.S. location when work on the agreement was completed.
The USD/JPY pair inched up 0.1%. Bank of Japan’s monetary policy meeting minutes is due on Wednesday.
The GBP/USD pair last traded at 1.2937, up 0.03%, as traders await new ECB head Christine Lagarde’s first official speech later in the day.
The EUR/USD pair was also near flat. The Bank of England’s newly renamed Monetary Policy Report is out on Thursday.
The AUD/USD pair inched up 0.1%. The Reserve Bank of Australia’s rate decision is due on Tuesday.
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