USD Falling Plunge! Powell's Speech Sounded 'Dovish'?

<p>&nbsp;As market analysts had feared, the US dollar showed a sharp decline again as the focus of trade at the end of the week was directed to the speech delivered by the Chairman of the Federal Reserve (Fed) Jerome Powell.</p><p><br /></p><p>Powell's statement was considered somewhat dovish when he expressed the suggestion that the central bank will not raise interest rates in the near future.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, he explained that the tightening of monetary policy is still a necessity based on the observation of the latest economic indicators including economic growth and employment.</p><p><br /></p><p>He also underlined that the risk is still focused on the current inflation which has started to show an upward trend in recent months.</p><p><br /></p><p>The dollar index fell to around 106.00 points before recovering slightly this morning while the 10-year US treasury yield was still excellent reaching a high of 5.00%, the highest since 2007.</p><p><br /></p><p>At the end of this week's trading, market focus was directed to China's economic data in the Asian session with the 1-year and 5-year prime lending rates remaining at 3.45% and 4.20% respectively.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>In the European session, UK retail sales data as well as the German producer price index (PPI) will be watched which will influence the movement of European currencies.</p><p><br /></p><p>European currencies, the Euro and the Pound showed further declines in the Asian session this morning despite recovering slightly in the previous session as the US dollar weakened.</p><p><br /></p><p>The same is true for Asian currencies, the Australian and New Zealand dollars.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Canadian dollar showed strengthening in the New York session yesterday as investors' focus will turn to Canadian retail sales data to be published tonight.</p><p><br /></p><p>The price of WTI and Brent crude oil continued to show further increases, reaching the price level of $89.00 and $92.30 per barrel, respectively.</p><p><br /></p><p>The price of gold continues to excel maintaining the bullish trend by jumping to $1,980 with analyst targets for the yellow metal reaching $2,000.</p>