Dollar eyes weekly gain and yen retreats ahead of BC meetings By Reuters

By Iain Withers

LONDON (Reuters) – The was on track to post a weekly gain against a basket of currencies as the yen fell on Friday ahead of a flurry of highly anticipated central bank meetings next week, including the Federal Reserve. and the Bank of Japan.

Japan’s biggest companies agreed with labor unions to raise wages to the highest level in 33 years on Friday, reinforcing views that the country’s central bank is ready to make a historic shift away from negative interest rates. .

Investors are closely watching decisions by other central banks for signs of how quickly they will cut interest rates after a period of rapid increases to curb runaway inflation. The Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank will also meet next week.

The is on track to break a three-week losing streak with a weekly gain of 0.6%.

While the Fed is not expected to change interest rates next week, this week’s warmer-than-expected U.S. producer and consumer price data prompted investors to scale back bets on future cuts.

Markets now price a 57% chance of the Fed cutting rates in June, compared with 74% a week earlier, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.

“The Fed is likely to show more caution regarding the near-term inflation outlook,” MUFG currency analysts said in a note.

The dollar index — which measures the US currency’s performance against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.03% to 103.410.

The dollar was up 0.4% against the yen at 148.91.

The euro was trading at $1.08875, up 0.05% on the day.

The pound was quoted at 1.2745 dollars, down 0.07%.