YEREVAN, September 3. ARKA/. The dollar marched further upward Tuesday ahead of U.S. manufacturing data due later in the day.
The ICE dollar index DXY +0.14% , which tracks the U.S. currency against six rivals, extended its gains from Monday, rising to 82.258 from 82.118. The WSJ Dollar Index XX:BUXX +0.13% was at 74.49, up from 74.40 late Monday.
“The U.S. dollar continues to find support amidst persistent speculation over early [quantitative easing]-tapering” by the U.S. Federal Reserve, analysts at ICICI Bank wrote Tuesday.
They pointed to the Institute for Supply Management’s August manufacturing index as the next key clue as to when the Fed will slow the pace of its bond purchases. The data is due at 10 a.m. U.S. Eastern time.
Economists polled by MarketWatch expect on average that the ISM index will ease to 54.0% from its 13-month peak of 55.5% in July.
ICICI Bank put Tuesday’s support level for the ICE dollar index at 82.00, with resistance at 82.65, while Royal Bank of Canada strategist Michael Turner noted that the index was nearing its 100-day moving average at 82.39.
The dollar’s gain was the euro’s loss, with the European unit EURUSD -0.22% easing to $1.3193 from $1.3217 after failing to get much of a bounce Monday from upbeat euro-zone manufacturing data.
The Japanese yen also lost ground, with the dollar USDJPY +0.31% rising to ¥99.40 from ¥99.24 late Monday. –0–
