By Rae Wee and Alun John
SINGAPORE/LONDON, Feb 23 (Reuters) – The dollar was trading near multi-week highs against major currencies on Thursday, a day after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policy meeting supported, but did not strengthen. , the US dollar. markets that the entity will continue to raise interest rates.
* The euro was trading steadily at $1.0606, just above the previous session’s nearly seven-week low of $1.0598, while the greenback traded at 134.8 yen, close to a two-week high of 135.2 months reached on Tuesday.
* The dollar index, which compares the US currency to a basket of six major pairs, was flat at 104.48 units.
* The measure advanced 0.36% on the eve, since the minutes of the meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC, for its acronym in English) of the Fed, held on January 31 and February 1, They have showed that almost all policymakers were in favor of slowing the pace of rate hikes, but also suggested that limiting too high inflation would be the “key factor” in deciding how many more rates to raise .
* The impact of the minutes was somewhat less as the meeting preceded a series of reports released in February, including jobs data, which showed the US economy is doing well, leaving the Fed more leeway to raise rates to reduce inflation. .
* Fed rate futures traders have largely clung to the idea that the central bank will continue to hike rates by a quarter point in its next three meetings.
* The recent rise in those expectations has seen the dollar index rise steadily from a low of 100.8 reached in early February, but it is still a long way from its 20-year high of 114.78 hit in October, at a time of fear for the health of the global economy and when the Fed was raising rates more aggressively than other central banks around the world.
Elsewhere, the pound was flat at $1.2045, the Swiss franc was flat at 0.9315 to the dollar and the Australian dollar rose 0.36% to $0.6823 after falling to a low on Wednesday. nearly seven weeks at $0.6795.
(Edited in Spanish by Carlos Serrano)