CURRENCY OVERVIEW

The Rupee closed weaker on Wednesday, troubled by portfolio outflows and routine hedging demand from local importers, while intermittent dollar sales from state-run banks cushioned the currency's fall. However, the positive cues did little to help the rupee, with traders pointing to outflows even as dollar sales from state-run banks limited the rupee's decline, traders said. The dollar index lingered near a one-week low while the offshore Chinese yuan touched a 13-month high after the country's central bank guided the market higher in tandem with a weaker U.S. currency. Against the rupee , the yuan hovered near its all-time high of 12.60 hit last week. Persistent worries over steep U.S. trade tariffs and a negative skew in trade and portfolio flows have contributed to pushing the local currency down by about 4% against the U.S. dollar and over 7% against the yuan this year. Meanwhile, dollar-rupee far forward premiums nudged higher, with the 1-year implied yield a tad higher at 2.21%, hovering near a monthly peak. With growing certainty about a Fed cut next month, traders reckon the trajectory for far forward premiums will depend more on the Reserve Bank of India's policy decision due on December 5. The Canadian dollar strengthened to a near one-week high against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday as increased bets on a Federal Reserve interest rate cut next month helped lift equity markets and weighed on the greenback. The loonie was trading 0.3% higher at 1.4048 per U.S. dollar, or 71.18 U.S. cents, its strongest intraday level since November 20. Canadian GDP data, due on Friday, could help guide expectations for additional Bank of Canada interest rate cuts. Analysts forecast the economy grew at an annualized rate of 0.5% in the third quarter, which would be an outcome that narrowly avoids a second-straight quarterly contraction. The Japanese yen slid against the dollar on Wednesday even as expectations rose that the Bank of Japan could hike rates next month, while sterling gained as investors welcomed a UK budget that delivered a larger-than-expected fiscal buffer. The yen initially rose against the dollar after the report, before reversing course. It was last down 0.3% at 156.51 per dollar, having earlier hit an intraday high of 155.66 . Sterling was last up 0.5% on the dollar at $1.3218 and was also higher versus the euro, which slipped 0.2% to 87.67 pence. , . All of that left traders adding to bets of a Fed cut next month, with markets now pricing in an 85% chance of a 25-basis-point move, according to the CME FedWatch tool. After rising 0.4% against the dollar on Tuesday, the euro last changed hands at $1.1588 , up 0.2%. The Australian dollar rose 0.5% to US$0.6502 after Australian inflation accelerated for a fourth straight month in October, closing the door to further policy easing.  Oil prices were little changed on Wednesday after sliding to a one-month low in the previous session as U.S. investors assessed prospects of oversupply and talks over a Russia-Ukraine peace deal. Brent crude futures lost 4 cents to $62.44 a barrel by 11:32 a.m. ET (1632 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 5 cents at $58.

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