Asian session review: the dollar rose moderately against major currencies

During today's Asian trading, the US dollar strengthened against the euro and the yen before the start of the two-day meeting of the Federal Reserve System (Fed).

Experts interviewed by Bloomberg expect that the Fed will confirm its readiness to continue buying assets in the same volumes until "significant progress is made" in moving towards the goals of maximum employment and price stability.

At the same time, 45% of respondents believe that before the end of this year, the Fed will announce plans to gradually reduce the monthly volume of asset repurchases, as the US economy is rapidly recovering from the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. In March, the Fed said it would continue to buy back $120 billion worth of assets each month, including $80 billion worth of US Treasuries and $40 billion worth of mortgage bonds. Experts expect an increase in the base interest rate, which is currently in the range from 0% to 0.25% per annum, no earlier than 2023.

Investors ' attention on Wednesday will be focused on the press conference of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, from whom they are waiting for signals about when the Fed may start reducing stimulus.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan kept unchanged the key parameters of monetary policy - the short-term interest rate on deposits of commercial banks in the Central Bank at -0.1% per annum, the target yield of ten-year government bonds of Japan-about zero.

The ICE index, which tracks the dollar's performance against six currencies (euro, swiss franc, yen, canadian dollar, pound sterling and swedish krona), rose 0.17%.