The dollar is getting stronger, and fears of a recession are making safe havens more popular.
In early European trading on Tuesday, the U.S. dollar went up a little bit and stayed close to a one-week high as fears of a global recession drove demand for the U.S. dollar.
At 3:55 AM ET (07:55 GMT), the Dollar Index, which compares the dollar to a basket of six other currencies, was trading 0.2% higher at 106.632, above the previous session’s high of 106.55 and the highest since Monday of last week.
Fears of a slowdown around the world are growing.
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The People’s Bank of China cut interest rates on Monday, which was a surprise. Weak data on industrial production and retail sales showed that the world’s second-largest economy was still having trouble recovering from the slow growth caused by its strict COVID rules.
This year, Europe’s energy bills are going up, which will slow growth as the year goes on. In August, factory activity in New York state fell to its lowest level since the COVID-19 pandemic began, which is another sign that the world’s largest economy is slowing.
But it seems likely that the Federal Reserve will keep tightening money when it meets again in September. All of the Fed officials who have talked since the meeting in July have pushed back against the idea that they might stop tightening soon.
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This puts the minutes from the Fed’s July meeting, which are due out on Wednesday, in the spotlight. The minutes will probably give hints about what might make the central bank tighten again in September.
After the People’s Bank of China cut its loan prime rate from 3.70% to 2.75% on Monday, USD/CNY rose 0.3% to 6.7920, which is close to a three-month low.
GBP/USD fell 0.2% to 1.2027 after Britain’s job market showed more signs of slowing. The number of people with jobs grew by 160,000 in April-June, which was a lot less than expected, and the number of job openings fell for the first time since mid-2020.
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EUR/USD fell 0.2% to 1.0142, which was the lowest level since August 5. USD/JPY increased 0.3% to 133.67, while AUD/USD decreased 0.4% to 0.6995. The slowdown in the Chinese economy, which is a big market for raw materials from Australia, hurt the Australian dollar.
