Dollar Up as Fed Points to Long Road Ahead for U.S. Recovery

By Gina Lee

Investing.com – The dollar was up on Thursday morning in Asia, with investor sentiment down after details emerged from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy meeting the day before.

The U.S. economy will shrink 6.5% this year, and the unemployment rate will be 9.3% by the end of the year, according to the Fed quarterly projections.

“It is a long road…we can use our tools to support the labor market and the economy, and we can use them until we fully recover,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said via video link on Wednesday.

The that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies gained 0.38% to 96.315 by 12:39 AM ET (5:39 AM GMT)

“That’s been the follow-through, and it’s played into a broad rebound in the dollar…but the takeaway is the Fed remains fully committed to its ultra-easy monetary policies…that should be supportive for risk assets, and on a structural basis we still think the U.S. dollar is embarking on a cyclical downturn,” Rodrigo Catril, FX analyst at National Australia Bank (OTC:), told Reuters.

The pair was down 0.01% to 107.08, with the safe-haven yen reversing its earlier gains.

The pair lost 0.82% to 0.6939 and the pair was down 0.63% to 0.6497.

The pair gained 0.15% to 7.0704 and the pair slid 0.43% to 1.2691.

Meanwhile, investors will be looking to U.S. jobless claims numbers, due to be released later in the day.