Dollar up again as Fed official hints at rate hike

The dollar rose for a fourth day against the euro, its longest stretch of gains in more than a month, as a usually dovish Federal Reserve official signalled his expectation of more interest-rate increases than the market has priced.

The US currency also extended gains against the yen into a fourth day. The greenback has climbed against all of its Groupof-10 peers this week as Chicago Fed president Charles Evans on Tuesday joined the ranks of officials who are pushing back against traders pricing a single rate increase by the year-end or later.

He said the so-called dotplot projections for two rate hikes this year were for him “a pretty good setting.” “Evans’ comments are taken hawkishly by the US dollar,” said Imre Speizer, a markets strategist at Westpac Banking in Auckland.

“If we continue to hear comments along those lines, then the market will see one reason to perhaps adjust its pricing for a hike from the end of this year, to something earlier.”

The dollar appreciated 0.4% to $1.1172 per euro as of 9:03 am in New York, after climbing 0.9% over the previous three days. The run of gains is the longest since Feb 18.

The greenback rose 0.4% to 112.79 yen. The US currency’s biggest gains on Wednesday came against currencies of commodity-producing nations including New Zealand and South Africa. The Bloomberg Commodity Index erased its gains of the last two days as oil dropped. New Zealand’s kiwi fell 0.8% to 66.97 US cents