Dollar Rises Against Some Major Rivals On Rate Hike Bets

(RTTNews) - The U.S. dollar remained fairly steady and scored gains against some of its major counterparts on Friday amid bets the Federal Reserve will raise interest rate next week.

The Commerce Department released a report showing the annual rate of consumer price growth slowed to 4.2% in March from a revised 5.1% in February.

Economists had expected the rate of growth to slow to 4.6% from the 5% originally reported for the previous month.

The annual rate of growth by core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy prices, also slipped to 4.6% in March from a revised 4.7% in February.

Economists had expected the rate of growth to slow to 4.5% from the 4.6% originally reported for the previous month.

Despite the slowdown, FHN Financial Chief Economist Chris Low noted, "Prices are still rising faster than the Fed is comfortable with."

"The FOMC will hike another quarter-point next Wednesday, and may indicate further hikes remain a possibility," Low said.

Ahead of the meeting, CME Group's FedWatch Tool is indicating an 85.7% chance the Fed will raise rates by another 25 basis points.

The dollar index, which climbed to 102.17 dropped to around 101.50 subsequently, but recovered to 101.67 later, gaining about 0.16%.

Against the Euro, the dollar firmed to 1.1018 after weakening to 1.1047. Against Pound Sterling, the dollar weakened to 1.2566.

The dollar strengthened against the Japanese currency, fetching 136.31 yen a unit.

The dollar firmed to 0.6615 against the Aussie, and settled at CHF 0.8944 against Swiss franc. Against the Loonie, the dollar eased to C$1.3548 as crude oil prices rose sharply.