Dollar little changed

NEW YORK: The US dollar was little changed to slightly higher on Monday, with investors mostly cautious ahead of Friday’s US non-farm payrolls report that could dictate the direction of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy.

Market forecasts showed increased hiring of 690,000 jobs for June, compared with 559,000 in May, and lower unemployment at 5.7% versus 5.8 the previous month, according to a Reuters poll.

The dollar has been on an upside trajectory since the outcome of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting a few weeks ago, as Fed officials penciled in two rate hikes for 2023.

Speculators decreased their net short dollar positions in the latest week, according to calculations by Reuters and US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data.

In mid-morning trading, the dollar index was up 0.1% on the day at 91.828.

The euro was slightly lower at $1.1929, while euro-dollar implied volatility gauges with a one-year maturity were close to their lowest since March 2020.

Against the yen, the dollar was flat to slightly lower at 110.705.

The Australian dollar, seen as a liquid proxy for risk appetite, was down around 0.3% on the day at US$0.7569, while the New Zealand dollar was down 0.3% at US$0.7046.

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin was down 0.8% at around $34,509. —Reuters