Currencies March 29, 2011, 10:15 a.m. EDT Dollar boosted by Fed comments By Deborah Levine and William L. Watts, MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) â The dollar turned up against the euro and extended gains versus other major currencies Tuesday after a U.S. Federal Reserve official said policy makers may not be able to wait for the resolution of global crises to begin withdrawing their ultra-accommodative monetary policy. The dollar index (BOARD-DXY) which measures the U.S. unit against a basket of major rivals, rose to 76.336 from 76.169 in North American trading late Monday. The index had fallen to about 75.925 ahead of remarks by Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard. The question of normalizing U.S. monetary policy is likely to return as a key issue in 2011, Bullard said at a banking forum in Prague. The U.S. central bank may not be able to wait until a range of global macroeconomic uncertainties â including Mideast and North Africa turmoil, the impact of the Japanese earthquake, the U.S. fiscal situation and Europeâs sovereign-debt crisis â are resolved to begin withdrawing stimulus, said Bullard, who isnât an FOMC voting member this year. Read more on Bullard. Bullard is the latest Fed official whose remarks have made currency traders more inclined to believe the Fed may step back from its easy policy measures, including a $600 billion bond-purchase program, than previously anticipated. âHis words have reminded investors that the savior of economic growth can just as easily be removed, which makes the dollar an alternative asset rather than serving as a whipping boy,â said Andrew Wilkinson, senior market analyst at Interactive Brokers. That made some traders unwind bets that the dollar will fall further, strategists said. The Fedâs second round of asset purchases, known as quantitative easing, is set to be completed in June. Read more on Fed bond purchases. âGoing forward, the dollar and Treasury yields will be sensitive to expectations of an exit from QE2,â said Kathleen Brooks, research director at Forex.com. Several Fed officials have speeches scheduled in the near future. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is slated to speak April 4, which âwill be a major market event,â Brooks said in emailed comments. European data The euro (U.S.:EURUSD) traded at $1.4065, off from about $1.4149 in earlier activity and down from $1.4084 late Monday. See real-time currency quotes and tools. Europeâs 17-nation shared currency got an early boost after consumer-sentiment data underlined expectations that the European Central Bank will hike interest rates as early as next week. The forward-looking GfK consumer-confidence indicator for April fell to 5.9 from 6.0 in March, but was above forecasts for a reading of 5.8. Strategists at UniCredit Bank in Milan said ongoing worries about the euro-zone periphery will likely maintain a cap on the euroâs upside potential, leaving them to doubt the euro can push much above the $1.4150 level. The British pound (U.S.:GBPUSD) fell to $1.5980 from $1.5990 late Monday. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar (U.S.:USDYEN) traded at Â¥82.26, up from Â¥81.67 late Monday. The move marked a break through the Â¥81.99 high scored during the recent round of coordinated intervention by the Group of Seven to weaken the Japanese currency. The yen had traded in a relatively narrow range since that intervention, as investors monitor the progress in Japanâs ongoing nuclear crisis in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The Australian dollar (U.S.:AUDUSD) eased to $1.0215, down from $1.0278 late Monday, when the Aussie rose to its highest level against the greenback since it was allowed to float freely in 1983.
By ZEINA KARAM The Associated Press updated 1 hour 47 minutes ago 2011-03-29T12:50:00 breaking news DAMASCUS, Syria â Syrian state-run television says the Cabinet has resigned as the country sees the worst unrest in decades. President Bashar Assad accepted the Cabinet's resignation following a meeting Tuesday. The resignation is the latest concession by the government aimed at appeasing more than a week of mass protests. Assad is expected to address the nation in the next 24 hours to announce he is lifting the emergency law and moving to annul other harsh restrictions on civil liberties and political freedoms
4:07pm The Libyan rebel council says that the United States has appointed an official envoy to the National Council in Benghazi. More details on this as and when they become available. 4:03pm Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid reports from Ras Lanuf that the news from Bin Jawad is that the city has fallen to pro-Gaddafi forces, and opposition fighters are now retreating to Ras Lanuf._ She also says that the opposition's military commanders are complaining that their fighters "do not want to be" disciplined or act in a structured way. Furthermore, the rebels' supply lines are stretched. 3:46pm The Pentagon says the military intervention in Libya has cost the United States about $550 million so far, mostly on bombs and missiles._ This represents the added cost to the US Defense Department - that is, money beyond that which it would have spent anyway.
So based on the price action here and with the dollar do people actually the think monetary policy will be based on some ridiculous survey?