By Rae Wee
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The dollar held near an 11-week high on Thursday as uncertainty over the upcoming U.S. election looms and as resilience in the U.S. economy added to bets the Federal Reserve will be less aggressive in easing rates versus its peers elsewhere.
The highlight of the Asia day will be a press conference in China at 0200 GMT focused on measures to prop up its beleaguered property sector, which will be key in getting the economy back on steadier footing and determining whether the rally in Chinese markets can continue.
Ahead of the press conference, the offshore yuan was last 0.04% higher at 7.1328 per dollar.
The Australian dollar, often used as a liquid proxy for the Chinese yuan, fell 0.02% to $0.6665, languishing near a one-month low hit in the previous session.
The Aussie has been weighed down in part by investors’ disappointment over the lack of further stimulus details from China, which has also capped further upside in Chinese stocks.
“Keeping a very close eye on China, waiting for yet another press conference which is probably going to be long in rhetoric and short in detail,” said Rodrigo Catril, a senior currency strategist at National Australia Bank (OTC:NABZY).
“Our sense is that there’s not a lot that we can get out of today … it’s very unlikely that we’ll get serious numbers. What we are looking for, though, is a little bit more colour in terms of what this objective of stabilising the housing market means.”
In the broader market, the dollar was on the front foot, after having scaled an 11-week top against a basket of peers in the previous session.
Sterling was flat at $1.2991, languishing near a two-month low hit on Wednesday due to weaker-than-expected UK inflation data, while the yen struggled near the 150 per dollar level and was last at 149.47.
The euro eased 0.02% to $1.0859, ahead of a monetary policy decision from the European Central Bank later on Thursday where it is expected to deliver another rate cut.
The dollar has not only drawn support from a run of upbeat data on the U.S. economy which has in turn caused traders to scale back their expectations of Fed rate cuts, but also on the possibility of a victory by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at next month’s election.
“His core policies on tariffs, immigration, and taxes would produce a more inflationary outlook in the U.S., diminishing prospects for aggressive Fed rate cuts over the cycle,” said Thierry Wizman, global FX and rates strategist at Macquarie.
The dollar index was last steady at 103.51, having peaked at 103.60 in the previous session.
Elsewhere, the New Zealand dollar ticked up 0.07% to $0.6061, after hitting a two-month low on Wednesday as data showed domestic inflation returned to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s target range of 1% to 3% in the third quarter, keeping the door open for the central bank to continue aggressively cutting rates.