Brazil's central bank intervened in the foreign exchange market on Thursday, selling $2 billion in the spot market with a repurchase agreement, it said in a statement on its website.
The dollar weakened to three month-lows against the yen and the pound on Thursday, after comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell that U.S. rate hikes could be scaled back "as soon as December", but the euro failed to climb past a major resistance level.
Sterling rose to a near 16-week high against a broadly-soft dollar on Thursday, with currency traders looking past gloomy British manufacturing data for now. The pound was last up 0.8% against the dollar at $1.2157, its highest level since Aug. 12, breaching the previous high of $1.2153 touched on Nov. 24. Sterling was also 0.6% higher versus the euro at 85.865 pence per euro.
The dollar tumbled more than 1.5% to a three-month low against the yen on Thursday, after comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell that U.S. rate hikes could be scaled back "as soon as December" though the euro failed to climb past a major resistance level.
* Dollar tumbles as Powell says Fed to go slow. * S.African rand down after panel findings against president. * China's factory activity shrinks amid COVID curbs - Caixin PMI. * Polish manufacturing slump drags on -PMI. * Turkish factory activity contracts for 9th straight month - PMI. By Bansari Mayur Kamdar.
* This content was produced in Russia where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine. The rouble weakened to a near seven-week low against the yuan on Thursday and also edged lower versus the dollar, as markets reacted to Federal Reserve comments on interest rates and the Russian currency was squeezed by the end of a favourable tax payment period.
- Investors turned modestly bullish on currencies of South Korea, Malaysia and Thailand, supported by prospects of China's reopening, a Reuters poll found, while bearish positions on other Asian currencies hovered at multi-month lows amid a weaker greenback.
Copper prices on Thursday climbed to their strongest in two weeks, supported by a weaker dollar and signs that top metals consumer China was shifting away from its stringent COVID-19 curbs policy. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 1% at $8,321.50 a tonne, as of 0700 GMT. On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the most-traded January copper contract rose 1.7% to 65,890 yuan a tonne.
The pound has pulled off its biggest monthly increase against the U.S. dollar since July 2020 in November, although its rally was eclipsed by peers such as the yen and the Swiss franc. Sterling had jumped about 5% against the greenback in November, as of 2110 GMT Wednesday, with a slowdown in U.S. inflation providing some much-needed relief to the world's battered currencies.
Asian equities jumped on Thursday, while the dollar slid as investors poured into risky assets after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell opened the door to a slowdown in the pace of monetary tightening. In an eagerly-awaited speech, Powell said the central bank could scale back the pace of its interest rate hikes "as soon as December," but cautioned the fight against inflation was far from over.
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