Intra-day update: rupee steady against US dollar

The Pakistani rupee stayed unchanged against the US dollar, during the opening hours of trading in the inter-bank market on Thursday.

At 10:20am, the currency was hovering at 277.73 against the US dollar.

On Wednesday, the rupee had settled at 277.73, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

Internationally, the US dollar traded close to a three-month high against major peers on Thursday, underpinned by expectations for a slower pace interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and growing bets of a possible second Donald Trump presidency.

The dollar index, which measures the currency against six rivals including the euro and yen, stood at 104.38 as of 0115 GMT, not far from the overnight high of 104.57, a level last seen on July 30.

A spate of robust macroeconomic indicators and some hawkish comments from Fed officials have tempered bets for monetary easing over the rest of this year, according to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.

Expectations for 50-basis-point rate cuts over the remaining two meetings of 2024 as opposed to a smaller reduction dropped to about 65% from about 70% a day earlier, and about 85% a week ago.

Oil prices, a key indicator of currency parity, climbed by more than 1% on Thursday, almost reversing previous session’s losses, as Middle East tensions came back into focus ahead of the US election despite a mixed bag of US fuel inventories.

Brent crude futures rose 95 cents, or 1.27% to $75.91 at 0302 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures climbed $1, or 1.41%, to $71.77 as an exchange of heavy fire between Israel and Hezbollah continued to worry markets about supply.

This is an intra-day update