Dollar up as Aussie drops, Fed minutes signal Sept rate rise coming

By Daniel Leussink

TOKYO (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar broadly rose against the euro and other currencies on Thursday after minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting suggested the U.S. central bank is on course to further raise interest rates.

While the euro has risen for six consecutive sessions, the dollar managed to make up some of its losses against the common currency after the minutes showed Fed officials discussed raising interest rates soon to counter U.S. economic strength.

The euro was down 0.2 percent at $1.1576 (), coming off a two-week high of $1.1623 touched overnight.

The (), which weighs the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, was 0.16 percent higher at 95.296.

The yen had fallen fell 0.2 percent to 110.74 versus the dollar at 0040 GMT as expectations of further U.S. interest rate increases dampened demand for the Japanese currency.

The Fed has raised rates twice this year and is widely expected to tighten policy again next month after leaving rates unchanged at its last meeting.

But dealers said political pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump and worries about a Sino-U.S. trade war continued to weigh on the dollar as the Fed’s minutes also showed officials examined how global trade disputes could affect businesses and households.

“The Fed seems to be quite concerned about the trade issues,” said Shinichiro Kadota, senior FX and rates strategist at Barclays (LON:).

“If those continue to materialize… market expectations for a rate hike might change depending on the outcome” of U.S.-China trade negotiations.

The was down sharply against the dollar after Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership looked doomed following the resignation of three senior ministers.

The Australian dollar shed 0.6 percent to $0.7308 as of 0112 GMT after the ministers called on Turnbull hold a second leadership vote.

“Since the Liberal leadership spill on Tuesday, the Australian dollar is easily the weakest G10 currency – despite strong Q2 construction data on Wednesday – which suggests that this is a rare instance of the Aussie carrying a small political risk premium,” said Sean Callow, senior currency strategist at Westpac in Sydney.

The British pound gave up about 0.15 percent to $1.2893 after Britain said it will step up its planning for a no-deal Brexit.

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