The US dollar remained steady in early trading in Asia on Tuesday, while the yen showed weakness beyond the 156 level. While investors maintained their expectations for possible interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve during the year, market movements remained limited.
In cryptocurrency markets, ether has led a significant rally as expectations for U.S. regulatory approval for spot ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) rise. The digital currency jumped over 5% to $3,691.80, a nearly 14% increase from the previous session, marking the biggest daily percentage gain since November 2022.
The Euro rose a small 0.03% to $1.0860, while the British Pound rose 0.03% to $1.27095. Since there was no important economic data from the USA this week, the focus of the markets shifted to the comments of Federal Reserve officials, who argued that recent policy changes should be approached cautiously, despite the data showing that consumer price pressures decreased in April.
Carol Kong, currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia (OTC:CMWAY), stated that the primary message from Fed officials is to maintain a patient approach on interest rate cuts. Despite this, the market's expectations for interest rate cuts continue and two interest rate cuts are predicted as of September.
In other currency news, the New Zealand dollar remained relatively stable at $0.6107 and the Australian dollar rose 0.1% to $0.6674 as the market awaited the minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia's May meeting.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, was unchanged at 104.61.
Bitcoin also increased by over 3%, surpassing the 70,000 $ level, and the last price was recorded as 71,259 $ .