Daily Market Outlook for 20.06.2013

The U.S. dollar continued to rally Thursday as global asset markets underwent sharp adjustments in the wake of confirmation by the Federal Reserve that it would begin to dial down stimulus this year as the economic outlook improves.

The Australian dollar and emerging Asian currencies slumped as traders speculated that higher U.S. bond yields down the road would prompt investors to shift some of their funds back to the United States from high-yielding currencies. The U.S. dollar also held firm against the yen, breaking away from the pattern in the past few weeks in which the greenback often fell in tandem with Tokyo share prices.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said that tapering of its bond buying depends on economic data and that a decline in U.S. unemployment to 6.5 percent is a threshold, rather than a trigger, for rate hikes. Today's full calendar, with focus PMI data from Europe and US, sees potential for continuation of strong market action that commenced on Fed's announcement late yesterday.