The dollar halted its slide in Asia trade Wednesday after a senior US central banker said overnight that an interest rate raise could come as early as next month.
William Dudley, the influential head of the Federal Reserve’s New York branch, unexpectedly hinted that a rate hike was possible as early as September.
Analysts said the comments from Dudley — who remarked that Wall Street investors were too “complacent” about the prospect of higher borrowing costs over the next year — halted the US unit’s fall in Asia.
The greenback had briefly dived under the 100 level against the safe-haven Japanese currency in New York for only the second time this year, touching as low as 99.54 at one stage.
“While Dudley was at least able to stem the bleeding for the dollar index, price action is not encouraging for the dollar near term,” Sean Callow, a Sydney-based senior foreign-exchange strategist at Westpac Banking Corp., told Bloomberg News.
“Still, so long as a rate hike seems more likely than not as the
