The Rupee opened stronger on Wednesday, while forward premiums extended their slide and volatility ?expectations fell on the back of a plunge in oil prices and ?upbeat risk appetite following the Middle East ceasefire. The rupee was trading at 92.62 per U.S. dollar at 9:40 a.m. IST, up from 93.0075 on Tuesday. The one-year implied ?rate on the dollar/rupee forward fell 24 basis points to ?3.08%, extending its decline to nearly 90 bps from Monday’s multi-year high. Meanwhile, ?one-week volatility expectations dropped to about 8%, after spiking to over 12% ?earlier this week. The agreement between Iran and the United States on a ?two-week ceasefire triggered a near 14% drop in Brent crude prices, providing relief to the rupee and other Asian currencies. Israel backed the two-week pause on Iran strikes. The ceasefire ?helped revive investor appetite for risk assets, lifting U.S. equity futures by ?about 2.5%, while Indian equities jumped 3.6%. The ceasefire will be a major relief for ?markets, which ?over the past several weeks have had to contend with uncertainty over how long the conflict might drag on and the potential impact on inflation. The ceasefire comes ahead of the Reserve Bank of ?India's ?policy decision at 10 a.m. IST. The central ?bank is widely expected to keep rates on hold, with the recent run-up in oil prices stoking ?inflation concerns. The dollar sank to its lowest ?level in a month while the euro, yen, Aussie and sterling rallied hard in Asian trading on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had agreed to a two week ceasefire with Iran. The yen strengthened 0.8% against the greenback to 158.36 per dollar. The euro was up 0.7% at $1.1674, while ?the British pound appreciated 0.8% to $1.34. The Australian dollar climbed 1.1% to $0.7054. Trump had earlier threatened widespread attacks ?on Iran's civilian infrastructure, drawing international condemnation after issuing an extraordinary warning that "a whole civilization will ?die tonight" if his demands were not met. The kiwi ?dollar climbed 1.5% to $0.5819, extending gains after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand kept its policy rate at 2.25% on Wednesday for a second straight meeting, choosing to sit tight as it gauges the economic fallout from the war. But the central bank signalled it is ready to act if inflation pressures intensify. Fed funds futures are pricing ?coin-toss odds that the Federal ?Reserve could cut rates ?by at least 25 basis points at its December 9 meeting, compared to an implied 74.5% probability a day earlier that the U.S. central bank would remain on ?hold, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool. The U.S. dollar index , which measures ?the greenback's strength ?against a basket of six currencies, weakened for a third consecutive day to lows of 98.838, its weakest since March 11. Elsewhere, the won strengthened 1.6% to 1,477.10, its biggest one-day appreciation since the Iran war began and shrugging off fresh ?geopolitical tensions ?on the Korean peninsula. South Korea's military said North Korea fired ?several ballistic missiles Oil prices settled mixed on Tuesday, with Brent down on worries that high energy prices could ?slow economic growth, while U.S. crude closed at its highest since 2022 ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's deadline for Iran to open the Strait of ?Hormuz. Brent futures fell 50 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $109.27 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 54 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $112.95, well off its session high when it was up by over $5 a barrel.toward the sea off its east coast on Wednesday, following a separate launch detected a day earlier.......