FX Roundup: Dollar recovers, but pound slips against major crosses

At 1608 BST, the British currency was down 0.81% against the dollar, changing hands at $1.5223, and 0.85% lower against the euro exchanging at €1.3392. The cable was also down 0.64% against the Swiss franc changing hands at CHF1.4616.

Going the other way, the dollar recovered some of the ground it lost over the previous session as the US National Federation of Independent Business said its index of small optimism rose from 95.9 in August to 96.1 last month, beating analysts’ expectations for a 95.5 reading.

Apart from notching gains against the pound, the dollar also rose 0.15% against the euro changing hands at $1.1375, but fell 0.18% against the yen to change hands with the carry trade currency at JPY119.8200, resisting lows seen last week.

The greenback traded higher against commodities-linked currencies including Norwegian Krone by 0.27% changing hands at NOK8.1171, accompanied by gains of 0.37% and 1.74% against the Mexican peso and Brazilian real respectively.

Kit Juckes, head of forex at Societe Generale, said, “The dovish and hawkish camps at the US Federal Reserve both seem keen to have their say to the media and the market sense that the doves hold the upper hand, isn't really being challenged. That would take hard data.

“The drop in oil prices has taken treasury yields back down again, towards but not to 2%, and tightening in the Treasury/Bund spread encourages EUR/USD to probe the top of the current range. 1.1460 is the key level and with speculative interest in selling EUR/USD non-existent, a test looks likely.”

Elsewhere, late afternoon European trading saw the Australian dollar fall against its US counterpart by another 0.86% changing hands at US$0.7299. Concurrently, the New Zealand dollar also fell 0.33% against the greenback changing hands at US$0.6696.