Easing Concerns Over Ireland Lift Risk Appetite, Pressure Buck

The dollar index suffered its first daily loss in the last five sessions on Wednesday as stabilizing equities lifted risk appetite and fears began to ease regarding Ireland’s obstinacy to accepting an aid package. The index started the day brightly enough as concerns regarding Ireland’s ability to manage its financing needs alone put the euro under pressure and lifted the buck. However, risk appetite was given a boost early in the North American session from solid consumer prices data and rising equities putting the greenback under the cosh. The index managed to pare its loss a tad into the NY close as US stocks gave back their gains as financials slipped dragging down the broader sentiment. But the dollar got a further knock late in the day as expectations started to rise that Ireland would in fact accept aid from the EU and IMF, lifting the euro once again. The easing of sovereign debt fears early in Asia helped Chinese and Japanese stocks to consolidate after the previous sessions weakness, keeping the pressure on the buck.


Looking ahead, as we approach the European open the index is under mild pressure, but at present this looks little more than consolidation after solid gains over the past couple days. We will only begin to be concerned about the door being opened to further losses in the index if we breach the 78.00 level, which is still some ways off. We therefore maintain our bullish slant in the index and favour this up-move to continue up above the psychologically important 80.00 level and encounter some resistance around 81.00.