Investing.com - The U.S. dollar was mostly flat on Monday, as investors waited for possible rate cut guidance from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell later in the day.
Powell is expected to speak at the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce annual dinner later in the day. Traders expect that he will underline the central bank’s decision to pause on monetary policy easing after cutting rates three times this year.
Powell said in testimony to Congress last week that the effects of those cuts have yet to be felt.
The greenback was also impacted by reports of possible trade progress between the U.S. and China, with investors waiting to see if a deal will be reached. The Chinese state-backed Global Times newspaper reported Monday that the two sides were “very close” to a deal on trade, which added to optimism from China’s announcement over the weekend that it plans to improve protection for intellectual property rights.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a basket of six major currencies, was steady at 98.123 as of 10:16 AM ET (15:16 GMT). The dollar was higher against the safe-haven Japanese yen, with USD/JPY gaining 0.2% to 108.83.
Meanwhile sterling jumped after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to bring a Brexit deal to parliament before Christmas. His Conservative Party leads in opinion polls ahead of the Dec. 12 election.
GBP/USD rose 0.6% to 1.2906 while EUR/GBP fell 0.6% to 0.8534.
EUR/USD was flat at 1.1020 after the German Ifo index showed that the euro bloc’s biggest economy is still in a recession.