Source: Cairo – Khaled Hosni
–
The US dollar extended its gains against a basket of major currencies during trading on Wednesday, after the announcement of the Federal Reserve meeting minutes. While gold suffered heavy losses at the end of yesterday’s trading.
In a statement, the US Federal Reserve’s minutes revealed that the epidemic will significantly affect economic activity, employment and inflation in the near term and will pose significant risks to the economic outlook in the medium term.
The Federal Reserve confirmed that consumer spending recovered during the past month, but the path of recovery of the US economy will depend on containing the virus, indicating that activity has improved since the beginning of last May, but it is still far from levels before the spread of the Corona virus and its transformation into a global pandemic.
The rise of the US green card came after its lowest level in about 27 months during last Tuesday’s trading.
At the same time, uncertainty about the recovery of the US economy continues, as well as the new fiscal stimulus package that most markets are anticipating, which puts pressure on the stock and currency markets.
In late trading on Wednesday, the dollar rose against the euro by 0.6%, sending the single European currency down to $ 1.1858.
The US green paper rose against its Japanese counterpart by 0.5% at 105.95 yen, while it rose by about 1% against the Swiss currency, recording 0.9136 francs.
As for the currency pair (the British pound-dollar), it witnessed a gain of 0.9% in favor of the US currency, to $ 1.3115.
At the same time, the main dollar index, which follows the performance of the US green paper against 6 major currencies, rose by 0.7% at 92.921 after recording the level of 92.15 during trading.
Gold prices retreated by more than $ 42 when settling yesterday’s transactions, as the metal was negatively affected by the US currency’s shift to rise after it recorded its lowest level in more than two years, especially since the strength of the green paper makes gold more expensive for holders of other currencies.
Upon settlement, the price of gold futures contracts for December delivery decreased by 2.1%, equivalent to 42.80 dollars, to fall to 1970.30 dollars an ounce. The yellow metal ended the session above the $ 2000 an ounce barrier.
The spot price of the precious metal fell to 1965.71 dollars an ounce, down by 1.8%, losing about $ 36 of its value.
– .
