AMID a short working week as markets closed in conjunction with Presidents’ Day, the dollar softened by 0.31% to 96.6 largely owing to improving trade sentiment after President Trump cited trade talks were “very productive”.
Besides, the dollar was partly weighed down by weaker economic release as both industrial and manufacturing output fell 0.6% month-on-month (m-o-m) and 0.9% m-o-m in January from a gain of 0.1% m-o-m and 0.8% m-o-m respectively in December 2018. However, the dollar capped some losses following the release of FOMC minutes as the Fed hinted that it might end its normalisation on the balance sheet later this year. The minutes also seemed to suggest that the Fed has an upward bias in its next move on interest rate as there was no indication of a rate cut in the minutes.