Intra-day update: rupee records slight improvement against US dollar

The Pakistani rupee registered marginal improvement against the US dollar, appreciating 0.03% during the opening hours of trading in the inter-bank market on Thursday.

At 10am, the currency was hovering at 278.16, a gain of Re0.07 against the greenback.

On Wednesday, the rupee had settled at 278.23, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

Internationally, the US dollar flirted with a two-year peak on Thursday after the Federal Reserve signalled a slower pace of rate cuts in 2025, while the yen slid to a one-month low ahead of a policy decision by the Bank of Japan (BOJ) later in the day.

The hawkish tilt from Fed Chair Jerome Powell and his team sent traders heavily dialling back on easing expectations next year and in turn sparked a broad dollar rally, sending currencies like the Swiss franc , the Canadian dollar and the South Korean won tumbling to milestone lows in early Asia trade on Thursday.

The Swissie bottomed at a five-month trough of 0.90215 per dollar, while the Canadian dollar sank to its lowest in over four years at 1.44655 per U.S. dollar.

The won tumbled to its weakest level in 15 years.

In stark contrast, the dollar index steadied at 108.15, near Thursday’s two-year top of 108.27.

Powell said on Wednesday more reductions in borrowing costs now hinge on further progress in lowering stubbornly high inflation, with his explicit - and repeated - references to the need for caution from here on jolting markets globally.

Oil prices, a key indicator of currency parity, fell in early trading on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve signalled that it would slow the pace of interest rate cuts in 2025, potentially impacting fuel demand.

Brent futures fell 33 cents, or 0.45%, to $73.06 a barrel by 0107 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 36 cents, or 0.51%, to $70.22.

The falls reverse much of the gains from Wednesday, when prices settled higher as US crude stocks fell and the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates by an expected 25 basis points as expected.

This is an intra-day update