Bernanke’s Warning On Inflation Boosted Dollar

The dollar rallied across the board after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke unexpectedly warned of inflation risk via satellite before International Monetary Conference Central Banker’s Panel in Spain. He said the central bank is “attentive to the implications of changes in the value of dollar for inflation and inflation expectations and will continue to formulate policy to guard against risks to both parts of our dual mandate”. This is the first time Bernanke highlighted the impact of dollar weakness on rising inflation, indicating that the central bank is not going to cut rates again. The dollar gained around 1% to 105.54 versus the yen. The euro slipped almost 200 pips from 1.56 to as low as 1.5412 against the dollar.

Interest rate futures on the Chicago Board of Trade showed a nearly 70% chance that the Fed will raise interest rates above 2.00% by the end of this year.

A report released later pushed the greenback even higher. US factory orders rose 1.1% in April, beating the estimate of 0.1%. In the same month, durable goods orders fell 0.6% as expected while core durable goods orders rose 2.4%.