TOKYO, July 14 Reuters The dollar resumed its relentless rise on Thursday, driven by both expectations for faster Federal Reserve policy tightening and safehaven flows amid growing fears of a recession.
The greenback charted new 24year highs above 128 yen and edged back toward parity with the euro, after briefly breaching the level overnight.
The Australian dollar also marched higher after strong jobs data spurred speculation for a big Reserve Bank rate hike.
Singapore39;s dollar and the Philippine peso surged against their U.S. peer after their respective monetary authorities surprised by tightening policy in offcycle moves.
The U.S. dollar was 0.6 higher at 138.235 yen after reaching 138.28 for the first time since September 1998.
The euro weakened 0.34 to 1.0024. It touched 0.9998 on Wednesday for the first time since December 2002.
U.S. consumer price figures overnight showed inflation, already at fourdecade highs, accelerating even further.
The bottom line is U.S. inflation momentum is rising, Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Kristina Clifton wrote in a client note.
Stubbornly high inflation increases the risk that the FOMC continues to hike aggressively and triggers a recession, she said. We expect that recession fears will continue to support USD.
Traders ramped up bets that the U.S. central bank could raise rates by 100 basis points when it meets on July 2627. A hike of at least 75 basis points is seen as almost certain.
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