Dollar Holds Near Highs as Fed Decision Looms
The US dollar has held near multi-week highs, while Asian currencies traded mixed on Wednesday as markets await the Federal Reserve's rate decision and look ahead to upcoming meetings from the Bank of England and Bank of Japan.
The USD/JPY pair slipped marginally to 154.97 after the yen fell to a one-week low of 155.49 earlier in the session, while the EUR/USD pair rose 0.07% to 1.15.
Markets are pricing a roughly one-in-three chance of a 25-basis-point hike from the Bank of England this week, despite renewed inflationary pressures driven by the UK's August consumer-price inflation accelerating to 3.1% from 2.9% in July.
The European Central Bank has already raised its three key rates by 25 basis points last Thursday, taking the deposit rate to 2.50%, in response to the Middle East conflict driving renewed inflation pressure.