The general index of the US dollar records increases by about 0.15% and trades at 102.27 levels in the middle of the European session today, Wednesday, June 21st, moments before the opening of the US markets, amid anticipation of a hearing session of US Federal Council Chairman Jerome Powell before the House Financial Services Committee, the semi-annual certificate, which is held twice year and complete it tomorrow.

In his speech, which is expected to be delivered before the House of Representatives in less than two hours, Jerome Powell indicated that the Fed is still focused directly on its mission to promote maximum job opportunities and price stability, while understanding the problem of high inflation, and the bank is still strongly committed to reducing inflation to the bank’s target. 2%.

Powell indicated that inflation is much higher than the bank’s long-term target, as the PCE index rose by 4.4% in April, and excluding the volatile food and energy categories, the index rose by 4.7%, while the main inflation index (CPI) came at 4% and the core at 5.3% in the May reading, to reflect Continuing inflationary pressures and that there is still a long way to go to re-inflation to about 2%.

With regard to monetary policy, the letter issued indicated that the bank decided to maintain the target range for the interest rate at its last meeting, but all participants in the Federal Committee expect that there will be a rise to some extent before the end of the year in interest rates, but the bank will continue to make decisions based on the data received and its reflection On expectations of economic activity and inflation.

The markets are awaiting questions from the committee members to the Federal Reserve Chairman less than two hours after reading his speech, which was released moments ago, as it is expected that the markets will interact with the monetary policy questions that Powell will try to give some indications of the future of interest rates and his expectations for the next meeting and the start date of the US rate cut.

Futures expectations rose by CME’s FEDWatch tool after Powell’s speech, and now see a 25 basis point hike in interest rates at the July 26 meeting, by about 79.4%, while it does not see any reduction in interest rates during the current year, and it sees peak levels of US interest at 5.5% by the end year.

On the other hand, on the other hand, Statistics Canada figures released moments ago showed an increase in retail sales in Canada by 1.1% to $65.9 billion in April, after a decline of 1.5% in the revised March reading, exceeding expectations that indicated a growth of 0.4%, while core sales rose. Excluding petrol stations, trade in cars and spare parts, by 1.5% in April, recording the increase for the fifth month in a row.