Dollar remains generally firm a relatively quiet markets today with the dollar index holding above 98 handle for the moment. The greenback continues to draw support from view that Fed will hike interest rate this year. St. Louis Fed president James Bullard, who's currently not a voting member of FOMC, said that it's 50/50 for a September hike from the current near zero level. The strength in dollar is see as a main reason on pushing down commodities, with gold now hovering around 1100 handle after diving to a five year lower earlier this week. Crude oil also breached 50 and is hovering around that level. Stocks were steady with DJIA up 13.96 pts, or 0.08% at 18100.41 overnight. Asian markets are mildly firmer with Nikkei up more than 110 pts, or 0.55% at the time of writing.
Aussie stays soft against the greenback even though downside momentum is a bit weak. The minutes of RBA July 7 meeting showed that growth slowed in the prior quarter. The minutes noted that investment in non-mining business was subdued and would remain so over the coming year. And, "despite recent improvements in labor market indicators, members reflected that there was still evidence of spare capacity." Meanwhile, exchange rate "thus far offered less assistance than would normally be expected in achieving balanced growth". And, the central bank said that "further depreciation seems likely and necessary". At this point, there is no fresh selling in Aussie yet as the minutes didn't point clearly to another rate cut. However, given that BoC cut interest rate last week already, another rate cut from RBNZ this week would likely drag down the Aussie. Meanwhile, if RBNZ stays on hold, there is prospect of mild recovery in Aussie.
In Eurozone, it's reported that EC, ECB and IMF are drafting a new Memorandum of Understanding to set out the conditions for the new three year bailout for Greece. And, they're now targeting to complete the process by August 6 so as to disburse the first tranche of financial aid by August 17. Yesterday, Greece paid around EUR 4.2b in principals and interest to ECB and EUR 2b to IMF as scheduled. Greece will have another vote in the parliament this Wednesday for the new reforms requested in the bailout.
The economic calendar is light today. Swiss will release trade balance while UK will release public sector net borrowing.