News: FOREX-Dollar buoyant as Fed readies to step up inflation fight

The dollar hovered near a two-year high against a basket of majors on Thursday and pushed commodity currencies further down from recent peaks, after meeting minutes showed the Federal Reserve preparing to move aggressively to head off inflation.
The U.S. dollar index =USD , which measures the greenback against six currencies, held at 99.546 in Asia trade - close to Wednesday's top of 99.778 which was its highest since May 2020.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars fell about 0.4% to sit more than 2% beneath highs struck on Tuesday as the Fed's tone has offset a hawkish shift from Australia's central bank.
The euro EUR=EBS scraped itself from a one-month trough of $1.0874 to hit $1.0912 in the Tokyo afternoon, but remains under pressure as minutes from the European Central Bank due later in the day are unlikely to sound as decisive as the Fed's.
Minutes from the March Fed meeting showed "many" participants were prepared to raise interest rates in 50-basis-point increments in coming months.
They also showed general agreement about cutting $95 billion a month from asset holdings which had ballooned during the pandemic. That was more or less in line with market expectations, but policymakers preparedness to begin as soon as May was confronting and will likely keep the dollar elevated.
"The minutes lend support to the view that peak-hawk has not been reached at the Fed just yet," said analysts at OCBC Bank in Singapore.
"In that context, the risk-reward favours dollar upside on the medium term, or at least for the dollar to stay in a supported stance. With the dollar index breaking through the 99.40/50 resistance, the next target may be the 100.00 mark."
Minutes from the ECB's March meeting, due later in the day, will be watched for insight into policymakers' delicate balancing act to manage soaring inflation and slowing growth.
An increasingly close-looking presidential election in France is another wildcard, and the risk of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen beating incumbent Emmanuel Macron has dragged on the euro and French debt ahead of Sunday's first-round vote.
Elsewhere the yen JPY=EBS was pinned down near a one-week low and last traded at 123.67 to the dollar. The Australian dollar AUD=D3 was down 0.45% to $0.7475 and the kiwi NZD=D3 was off 0.35% to $0.6891.
Sterling GBP=D3 held at $1.3076. Broad selling of equities and other risk assets as higher interest rates loom has also hurt cryptocurrencies, and bitcoin BTC=BTSP nursed Wednesday's 5% drop at $43,000.
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	Currency bid prices at 0528 GMT 
 Description	  RIC		 Last		   U.S. Close  Pct Change	 YTD Pct	 High Bid	Low Bid 
											  Previous				   Change				  
											  Session											
 Euro/Dollar	   EUR=EBS	$1.0911		$1.0895	 +0.15%		 +0.00%	  +1.0917	 +1.0896 
 Dollar/Yen		JPY=EBS	123.6650	   123.7850	-0.06%		 +0.00%	  +123.9300   +123.4750 
 Euro/Yen		 																			 
 Dollar/Swiss	  CHF=EBS	0.9330		 0.9327	  +0.03%		 +0.00%	  +0.9334	 +0.9320 
 Sterling/Dollar   GBP=D3	 1.3076		 1.3069	  +0.09%		 +0.00%	  +1.3083	 +1.3065 
 Dollar/Canadian   CAD=D3	 1.2565		 1.2544	  +0.09%		 +0.00%	  +1.2568	 +1.2543 
 Aussie/Dollar	 AUD=D3	 0.7475		 0.7509	  -0.44%		 +0.00%	  +0.7570	 +0.7475 
 NZ				NZD=D3	 0.6892		 0.6916	  -0.34%		 +0.00%	  +0.6920	 +0.6891 
 Dollar/Dollar																				   
All spots FX= Tokyo spots AFX= Europe spots EFX= Volatilities FXVOL= Tokyo Forex market info from BOJ TKYFX
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World FX rates	https://tmsnrt.rs/2RBWI5E 
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