Dollar Gains Against Major Rivals After Hawkish Fed Comments

(RTTNews) - The U.S. dollar firmed against its major counterparts on Thursday, supported by hawkish comments from some Federal Reserve officials, including St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard.

In remarks at an event hosted by Greater Louisville Inc., Bullard suggested the central bank's aggressive interest rate hikes have had "only limited effects on observed inflation."

Bullard noted that the policy rate is not yet "sufficiently restrictive" and highlighted a dovish scenario that could take the funds rate to 5% and a hawkish rate at 7%.

Bullard said he is targeting a minimum of another 125 basis points in rate hikes, bringing the target range to 5 to 5.25%.

In economic releases today, data from the Labor Department showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits edged slightly lower in the week ended November 12th, dipping to 222,000, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week's revised level of 226,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to come in unchanged compared to the 225,000 originally reported for the previous week.

A report released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia on Thursday showed regional manufacturing activity unexpectedly contracted at a faster rate in the month of November, tumbling to a negative 19.4, from a negative 8.7 in October.Economists had expected the index to inch up to a negative 6.2.

The dollar index climbed to 107.24 this morning, but gave up some gains as the session progressed and was last seen hovering around 106.65, up nearly 0.35% from the previous close.

Against the Euro, the dollar is trading at 1.0370, firming from 1.0396.

The dollar is stronger against Pound Sterling at 1.1864, gaining from 1.1915.

Against the Japanese currency, the dollar has strengthened, fetching 140.19 yen a unit, as against the previous close of 139.54 yen.

The dollar is trading at 0.6692 against the Aussie, gaining from 0.6743.

Against Swiss franc, the dollar up, fetching CHF 0.9515, about 0.7% up from CHF 0.9449. Against the Loonie, the dollar is roughly flat with the USD/CAD pair at 1.3323.