Dollar is falling amid expectations of the end of the federal interest rate hike cycle

The dollar fell on Thursday after the Federal Reserve made what some predicted would be its last rate hike, with market focus shifting to the European Central Bank’s interest rate decision later in the day.

The Fed on Wednesday raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point as expected, the 11th time the US central bank has raised interest rates in its last 12 meetings.

And while Council Chairman Jerome Powell left the door open to another increase in September, dealers ruled out that this would happen, which led to a drop in the dollar in Asian trading on Thursday.

The New Zealand dollar rose 0.8% to $0.6259 in latest trading, after earlier rising more than 1% to a one-week high of $0.6274.

The Australian dollar also jumped nearly 1 percent to a one-week high of $0.68195.

The dollar index fell 0.3 percent to 100.81, while the pound sterling touched a one-week high of $1.29735 earlier in the session.

And sterling rose in the latest transactions 0.19 percent to 1.2964 dollars.

The euro rose 0.18 percent to $1.11035.

The Japanese yen advanced nearly 0.3 percent against the US dollar to 139.84 in its latest trading.

In exchange for the dollar’s decline, the yuan rose in both the internal and external markets, as it rose abroad by nearly 0.5 percent to 7.1170 per dollar, its strongest level since mid-June.