By Gina Lee
Investing.com – The dollar was up on Wednesday morning in Asia on the back of eagerly-awaited details from a U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting scheduled for later in the day.
Although investors expect no major changes, the Fed could announce steps to curb the recent rise in bond yields, which could bring the dollar down.
“The Fed can afford to wait and see on yield curve control because the U.S. economy has gotten past the crisis phase and only just entered the healing phase,” said Masafumi Yamamoto, chief currency strategist at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo.
“The markets got overly optimistic and are adjusting lower, but this is a good chance to buy the dollar on the dip.”
The U.S. Dollar Index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies gained 0.01% to 96.332 by 11:36 PM ET (4:36 AM GMT).
The USD/JPY pair was down 0.07% to 107.64.
The AUD/USD pair gained 0.17% to 0.6973 and the NZD/USD pair gained 0.26% to 0.6529.
Investors remain positive on both currencies as Australia and New Zealand resume economic activity after lifting their COVID-19 lockdowns, and the Antipodean currencies gained from recent investor optimism over the global economic recovery from COVID-19.
But the risk currencies could soon feel an impact as that optimism over the recovery wanes, with the AUD also affected by Australian tensions with China which continue to simmer.
The USD/CNY pair dropped 0.04% to 7.0736. China reported that May’s Producer Price Index fell 3.7% year-on-year earlier in the day. Analysts had expected a 3.3% drop in forecasts prepared by Investing.com.
The GBP/USD pair gained 0.10% to 1.2742.