Dollar Erases All Gains Driven by Fed’s Meeting Minutes

The U.S. Dollar (USD) returned to the downward trend on Thursday, declining against most major currencies and erasing its short-lived gains following the release of the Federal Reserve April’s meeting minutes yesterday.

Markets were relatively taken by surprise when the minutes showed that although members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted unanimously to maintaining interest rates and the current pace of asset purchases unchanged during last month’s meeting, there were some participants suggesting that in upcoming meetings it might be appropriate to start discussing scaling back the large bond-buying.

The Dollar Index (DXY), which measures the greenback’s performance against a basket of six major international currencies, is down by 0.47% at 89.77.

The index, which closed Wednesday’s trading higher for the first time in four sessions at 90.19, has been moving today in a range between 90.23 and 89.77, almost entirely in the negative territory, maintaining a declining trend following a brief rise earlier in the day.

Accordingly, DXY nears closing Thursday near its level by the end of Tuesday, abolishing all of its yesterday’s gains.

A rise in Treasury bond yields also provided some support to the Dollar before turning to the declining trend.