US Dollar higher on Richard Clarida comments

The US Dollar rose on Tuesday for the third consecutive session after a senior Federal Reserve official restated the need for rate hikes and as investors sought shelter in the currency thanks to China-U.S. trade tensions.

Richard Clarida the Federal Reserve Vice Chair supported further rate hikes comments from the Vice Chair were hawkish, supporting analyst’s expectations that the Fed will remain consistent and adjust monetary policy according to economic data which has been strong.

Traders are also focused this week on a speech on Wednesday by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and minutes from the central bank’s Nov. 7-8 meeting to be released on Thursday, for further cues of how many more times the Fed is likely to hike interest rates.

The U.S Dollar index rose versus a basket of six major currencies on Tuesday’s session to settle at 97.38.

Regarding economic data, investors will be keeping an eye on key economic data later today as the U.S Gross Domestic Product for the third quarter is scheduled to be released later and it’s expected to show a figure of 3.6 percent higher than the previous reading of 3.5 percent.

Over in Europe, EURUSD plunged against the greenback to close the session at 1.1287 pressured by the dollar strength and due to signs of weakening Eurozone economic momentum.

Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank acknowledged the slowdown in economic activity on Monday but said that the ECB remains on course to dial back its bond-buying stimulus.

Over in the United Kingdom, the Sterling fell against the U.S Dollar on yesterday’s session, the GBPUSD dropped by 0.5 percent to trade at 1.2742 at the close.

The cable fell as traders bet that Theresa May the British Prime Minister wouldn’t be able to reach an agreement regarding the Brexit in a fractious parliament.

In terms of Safe-havens, both the Swiss Franc and the Japanese Yen fell against the U.S. Dollar. The USDCHF and USDJPY ended the trading session at 0.9985 and 113.77 respectively.

Precious metal Gold lost against the U.S Dollar on yesterday’s session. Gold fell to settle at 1215.03 at the close.

In terms of commodity-currencies, the Loonie Dollar lost against its U.S. counterpart, the rise in the prices of oil were offset by a stronger greenback. The USDCAD ended the session at 1.3292.

Meanwhile, in Asia, both AUDUSD and NZDUSD gained against the U.S Dollar to settle at 0.7223, and 0.6788, respectively.

In Cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, Lite Coin and Ethereum had some modest against the Greenback as all three rose to reach 3739 BTCUSD, 105.91 ETHUSD, and 28.83 LTCUSD.