By Jiaxing Li
HONG KONG, Aug 19 (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar drifted near multi-month lows against major peers on Wednesday as Treasury yields eased from recent highs, with investors awaiting minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting for clues on the path of interest rates.
The euro inched higher to $1.1577, remaining close to the two-month high touched earlier this week.
Sterling was little changed at $1.3533, holding near a three-month high ahead of British inflation data due later on Wednesday, which is widely expected to show persistent price pressure.
The Japanese yen was little changed at 159.56 per dollar, having given back much of its intervention gains, but it is still well off a multi-decade low of about 164.
The dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against six major peers, was down marginally at 99.65.
A selloff in U.S. Treasuries appeared to have paused amid a week light on economic data or other obvious catalysts. The yield on the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury note extended declines and was last at 4.702%, while that on the 30-year bond fell to 5.282%.
Market participants now turn to the Federal Reserve’s release of minutes from the most recent meeting of its monetary policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee later in the day, looking for clues as to policymakers’ views on interest rates.
Data released in the past few weeks have pointed to a softer U.S. economy, including unexpected job losses in July and mild inflation readings, leading investors to scale back rate-hike bets.
“If the Fed does not follow through with the rate hikes that are being discounted, the upside for bond yields should be very limited here,” Harvinder Kalirai, chief global fixed income and currency strategist at Alpine Macro, said in a client webcast.
“The labour market and inflation surprise are rolling over and usually that coincides with a narrowing in the dollar’s yield advantage, and that feeds through into a softer dollar.”
Meanwhile, a stalemate in the Middle East lifted oil prices to near three-week highs, keeping inflation risk alive. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday there were no talks with Iran and insisted the Strait of Hormuz was open, contradicting Iran’s assertion that the waterway remained shut to shipping.
Elsewhere, the New Zealand dollar and the Australian dollar were little changed, last trading at $0.5874 and $0.7083, respectively.
(Reporting by Jiaxing Li in Hong Kong; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
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