2021.08.1907:37:00UTC+00U.S. Dollar Firms As Fed Minutes Suggest QE Tapering To Begin This Year

The U.S. dollar strengthened against its major counterparts in the Asian session on Thursday, as the Federal Reserve's minutes showed that most officials agreed to begin the reduction of bond purchases later this year.

Most participants judged that it could be appropriate to start tapering the bond purchases later this year amid progress towards employment goal and meeting inflation criteria, the minutes from the Fed's July 27-28 meeting showed.

But there was still some disagreement over the timing of tapering the asset purchases.

Although some believe tapering could begin in the "coming months," others felt a reduction in the pace of asset purchases would be more likely to become appropriate next year.

Participants favoring waiting until next year saw prevailing conditions in the labor market as not being close to meeting the "substantial further progress" standard or because of uncertainty about the degree of progress toward the price stability goal.

Most participants acknowledged that it would be important to reaffirm the absence of any mechanical link between the timing of tapering and that of an eventual increase in the target range for the federal funds rate.

The greenback climbed to a 4-week high of 1.3699 against the pound, 6-day highs of 110.23 against the yen and 0.9207 against the franc, off its early lows of 1.3758, 109.76 and 0.9152, respectively. The greenback is seen finding resistance around 1.34 against the pound, 112.00 against the yen and 0.94 against the franc.

The greenback appreciated to 9-1/2-monh highs of 1.1666 against the euro and 0.7175 against the aussie, following its early lows of 1.1717 and 0.7243, respectively. On the upside, 1.15 and 0.70 are possibly seen as its next resistance levels against the euro and the aussie, respectively.

The greenback recovered from its early lows of 0.6888 against the kiwi and 1.2647 against the loonie, rising to more than a 9-month high of 0.6834 and more than a 4-week high of 1.2735, respectively. The greenback is likely to find resistance around 0.66 against the kiwi and 1.30 against the loonie.

Looking ahead, U.S. weekly jobless claims for the week ended August 14 and leading index for July will be published in the New York session.