U.S. dollar flat; Fed officials appearances, Brexit in focus

The U.S. dollar was little changed on Monday in Asia. Investors will be looking ahead to appearances by a number of Federal Reserve policymakers this week, while Brexit developments also remained in the spotlight.

The U.S. dollar index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies slipped 0.1% to 98.090 by 1:15 AM ET (05:15 GMT).

New York Fed President John Williams (NYSE:WMB), St Louis Fed President James Bullard and Chicago Fed President Charles Evans will deliver speeches this week. Their comments will come after last week’s Fed meeting pointed to growing divisions among officials over the future direction of monetary policy.

The Federal Reserve slashed interest rates for the second time in 2019 last week, as expected. Other major central banks, including the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank, left rates unchanged last week.

Meanwhile, the GBP/USD pair inched up 0.1% to 1.2485. Brexit developments are being closely watched as Britain’s Supreme Court is expected to make a ruling on whether Prime Minister Boris Johnson acted unlawfully in suspending parliament.

Hopes that a no-deal Brexit could be avoided increased since last week after European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said last Thursday he thought Brussels could reach agreement with Britain on its departure from the European Union.

The AUD/USD pair rose 0.1% to 0.6777, while the NZD/USD pair gained 0.3%.

The USD/CNY pair traded 0.3% higher to 7.1125.