Dollar Drops Following Powell’s Remarks

The U.S. Dollar (USD) declined on Friday, minutes after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell publicly said that he thinks tapering could begin before the end of the year.

Powell’s remarks at the Jackson Hole economic conference reaffirmed what the Fed’s July meeting minutes indicated about a majority of Fed board members supporting scaling back the massive asset purchases before the end of the year.

The Dollar Index (DXY), which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, quickly dropped to 92.68 after the remarks, after it had been moving in a tight range around 93.00 in the negative territory during most of the European session before briefly rising to a daily high of 93.18 before Powell’s speech.

The index is now down by about 0.43% at 92.665.