GLOBAL MARKETS-Dollar hits 14-year high; oil falls in choppy trade

By Reuters / November 17, 2016 / in.investing.com / Article Link

* Dollar index hits highest level since early 2003 (Updates prices, comments)

By Rodrigo Campos

NEW YORK, Nov 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar index touched a near 14-year high on Wednesday, while oil prices fell in a volatile session as traders were caught between a build in U.S. stockpiles and the chance of an agreement in an output cut.

Declines in bank stocks more than offset gains in the technology sector on Wall Street. The S&P 500 had ended on Tuesday at a 10-week high while the Dow industrials set a record close, fueled by a post-U.S. election rally.

"You've got a little bit of a hangover from the Trump rally today," said Steven Chiavarone, a New York-based associate portfolio manager of Federated Investors Global Allocation Fund.

"The market priced in pretty quickly a very rosy scenario but now you're seeing a little doubt on the counter frame as he puts together his team."

The dollar has surged in the past week, tracking Treasury yields higher on the expectation that increased U.S government spending could trigger higher inflation and force the Federal Reserve to tighten monetary policy more quickly than expected.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 48.62 points, or 0.26 percent, to 18,874.44 and the S&P 500 .SPX lost 3.28 points, or 0.15 percent, to 2,177.11, while gains in tech shares helped the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC add 18.55 points, or 0.35 percent, to 5,294.17.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 fell 0.21 percent, while MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS edged down 0.06 percent.

VOLATILE OIL, STRONG GREENBACK

Oil prices fell in choppy trading as the market weighed Russia's comments on a possible meeting with Saudi Arabia about output cuts against a bigger-than-expected U.S. crude storage build. crude CLc1 fell 0.7 percent to $45.51 a barrel and Brent LCOc1 traded at $46.51, down 0.9 percent. Crude had earlier risen more than 1 percent after a statement from the Russian energy minister.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's plans to cut taxes and increase infrastructure spending could boost economic activity while adding to the deficit, and his proposals to deport illegal immigrants and impose tariffs on cheap imports are seen driving inflation higher.

That prospect triggered a selloff in U.S. bonds that lifted yields across the board, and raised expectations that U.S. interest rates will rise faster than previously anticipated, giving support to the dollar.

U.S. interest rate futures are pricing in an 81 percent chance of a rate hike at the next Fed meeting, scheduled for December.

The dollar index, a measure of the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, hit 100.57 .DXY , its highest since April 2003. It was last up 0.14 percent at 100.37.

The euro EUR= fell 0.4 percent to $1.0683, while the yen JPY= was little changed at 109.13 per dollar, having earlier fallen to 109.75. The greenback rose to an eight-year high against the Chinese yuan of 6.8798 yuan CNY=CFXS .

"The market has gone a bit too far ahead of itself. It looks vulnerable for a short-term pullback," said Mazen Issa, senior currency strategist at TD Securities in New York, referring to the dollar rally.

While traders have increased their expectations on the Federal Reserve raising interest rates at its Dec. 13-14 meeting, the dollar rally may cause Fed policymakers to reconsider such a move because of its repercussions on U.S. exports, analysts said.

"It's reaching its limit. It could feed back negatively on U.S. growth," Joachim Fels, global economic adviser at Pimco, said at the Reuters Global Investment Outlook Summit in New York.

Weaker-than-forecast U.S. producer prices and industrial production data on Wednesday supported Treasury prices and capped dollar gains. 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 5/32 in price to yield 2.2225 percent, down from 2.238 percent on Tuesday.

Spot gold XAU= fell 0.2 percent to $1,225.95 an ounce. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 rose 0.12 percent to $1,226.00 an ounce.

Copper CMCU3 fell 1.7 percent to $5,433.15 a tonne.

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