Dollar moves in a narrow range ahead of inflation data, Jackson Hole

According to Business Recorder, the dollar traded within a narrow range in early Asian trade on Wednesday, as currency markets stayed calm while traders looked ahead to inflation figures from large economies, the United States among them, and the Jackson Hole symposium later this weekend. Over the last week, the greenback has been confined to a tight band against most major peers, and the dollar index held at 98.918 after snapping a three-day rise on Tuesday.

Oil fell as well, with Brent crude down 2.1%, trading at $86.68 after Iran said it had restarted talks with Oman on managing the Strait of Hormuz, although negotiations between Washington and Tehran remained stalled. The Australian dollar edged up 0.1% to $0.7172 following trimmed mean CPI data showing an annualised rise of 3.6%, while the kiwi slipped 0.2% to $0.5962 ahead of a Reserve Bank of New Zealand rate decision next week.

Markets widely expect the New Zealand central bank to lift rates by 25 basis points, which would take the rate to 2.75%, LSEG data show. Gold slipped 0.5% to $4,633.94 but trimmed its monthly gain to 15%, while Bitcoin rose 0.8% to $78,829.03 and ether gained 0.7% to $2,453.10. Bitcoin and ether are up 25% and 31% so far this month, respectively.