USDJPY rallies to seven-month high as Fed defends hawks despite no rate change verdict

Federal Reserve announced the much-awaited pause to its rate hike trajectory on Wednesday but markets made a peace with a hawkish halt with upbeat economic forecasts and the policymakers readiness to assess more details for each upcoming rate increase.

US Dollar dropped on the Fed announcements before reversing the losses so far on Thursday. The same joins the upbeat US Treasury bond yields, softer Japan data and dovish BoJ bias to propel the USDJPY. With this, the Yen pair rises the most among the G10 currency pairs while refreshing the yearly high.

On the other hand, Australia‘s strong employment data failed to impress AUDUSD bulls amid softer China figures and broad US Dollar strength. Alternatively, New Zealand’s downbeat GDP and statistics from Beijing, as well as a firmer USD, weighed on the NZDUSD. It should be noted that EURUSD and USDCAD remain on the dicey floor, printing mild gains as traders await the ECB Interest Rate Decision. Furthermore, Gold price drops to a three-month low but Oil bear struggled amid mixed signals.

Elsewhere, Cryptocurrencies suffer from firmer US Dollar and regulatory fears as BTCUSD and ETHUSD refresh three-month lows.

Following are the latest moves of the key assets:

• Brent oil prints mild losses near $73.40 at the latest.

• Gold price drops to three-month low of around $1,930 during five-day downtrend as we write.

• USD Index recovers from three-week low, snaps two-day downtrend at 103.20.

• Wall Street closed mixed but the Asia-Pacific shares grind higher. That said, the equities in the UK and Europe remain mixed by the press time.

• BTCUSD and ETHUSD decline to the lowest levels since March to near $24,900 and $1,640 respectively at the latest.