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2025-09-18 23:02:01
The US dollar strengthened against most major currencies on Wednesday, a day after the Federal Reserve announced its expected rate cut but signaled it would not rush to lower borrowing costs in the coming months. Data showing a decline in new US jobless claims last week, reversing the previous week's increase, supported the dollar. The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point on Wednesday, as expected. Chairman Jerome Powell described the action as a risk-management measure to address labor market weakness, but said the central bank did not need to rush into easing policy. Eric Theoret, a foreign exchange strategist at Scotiabank, said Powell's comments fell short of the "clearly dovish tone the market was expecting." Theoret said that upbeat economic data released Thursday, coupled with the heavy sell-off that hit the dollar at the start of the week, were enough to boost the greenback. "I think the market balance is a little bit skewed to one side, so it's going to take a lot of work to get the dollar to weaken further," he said. Analysts were divided on how to interpret the Fed's message. Officials at Goldman Sachs said there were many signs that Wednesday's rate cut was just the first of many, while officials at ANZ Bank called the Fed chairman's comments "not dovish at all."
