Yahoo Finance Dollar Steady, Bitcoin Surges as Futures Trading Starts
Investing.com - The dollar was steady against a basket of the other major currencies on Monday but remained supported by expectations of higher interest rates, while bitcoin prices surged as futures trading in the digital currency got underway.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was at 93.83 by 03:30 AM ET (08:30 AM GMT), flat for the day.
Demand for the dollar continued to be underpinned after Friday’s stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs report underlined expectations for a rate hike by the Federal Reserve at its upcoming meeting.
The U.S. economy added a larger-than-forecast 228,000 jobs in November the Labor Department reported, but the report also showed that wage growth remained tepid.
The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates at its two-day policy meeting that will end on Wednesday but the disappointing wage data could weigh on the pace of interest rate hikes next year.
The Bank of England and the European Central Bank will also meet this week and are expected to hold rates steady.
The dollar was a touch lower against the yen, with USD/JPY dipping 0.08% to 113.38.
The euro pushed higher against the dollar, with EUR/USD rising 0.16% to 1.1794, pulling back from Friday’s three week low of 1.1729.
Sterling was lower, with GBP/USD down 0.21% to 1.3365, well off the high of 1.3519 hit on Friday after a breakthrough in Brexit negotiations.
Meanwhile, the price of the digital currency bitcoin jumped 10% following the launch of trading of the first U.S. bitcoin futures on Sunday.
On the U.S.-based Bitfinex exchange, Bitcoin was last at $16,520.00.
Trading of futures tracking the cryptocurrency began at 18:00 ET on Sunday on an exchange run by Cboe Global Markets, less than 10 days after receiving a green light from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Larger exchange CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) will begin initial listings of bitcoin futures contracts on December 18.
Bitcoin’s rally came amid fresh warnings that the cryptocurrency is a speculative bubble.
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