Investing.com -- The U.S. Dollar Index surged to fresh four-month highs on Wednesday, extending recent gains as foreign exchange traders await a critical monetary policy meeting from the European Central Bank's Governing Council for indications on the long-term direction of several top currencies.
At session-highs, the index reached as high as 97.37, its highest level since early-March. The dollar is on track for its fourth straight winning session and its sixth over the last 10. Since last month's historic Brexit decision, the dollar has soared approximately 3% against its main rivals.
The U.S. Dollar moved slightly higher against the euro and the British Pound on Wednesday as investors looked ahead to the ECB's Governing Council's first monetary policy meeting since U.K. voters approved a measure paving the way for a British departure from the European Union. On Wednesday, economic indicators showed that consumer confidence in the EU fell sharply by 1.8 in June to Minus-7.6, dropping to the lowest level since November, 2014. In the euro area, the DG ECFIN flash consumer confidence index declined by 0.7 from an upwardly revised Minus-7.2 to Minus-7.9. Analysts expected a reading of Minus-8.0. The Governing Council is widely expected to stand pat at Thursday's meeting, amid a relative lack of data following the Brexit-inspired market shock.
The ECB meeting comes days before the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will convene for its two-day July meeting in the middle of next week. Since the Fed left short-term interest rates unchanged at its June FOMC meeting, participants have been largely split on the timing of its next rate hike, amid strong employment and housing figures. The CME Group's (NASDAQ:CME) Fed Watch tool now sees a 41.6% chance of a 25 point basis hike in December, up from around 20% last week. Any rate hikes by the Fed this year are viewed as bullish for the dollar, as investors pile into the greenback in order to capitalize on higher yields.
Elsewhere, USD/JPY surged more than 1% to an intraday high of 107.44, clearing the 107 level for the first time in six weeks. Earlier, Kyodo reported that the Japanese government is considering a JPY 20 trillion stimulus package – roughly twice the amount than previous reports had indicated. The dollar has surged nearly 7% against the Yen since former Fed chair Ben Bernanke met with Japan prime minister Shinzo Abe last week in Tokyo. The two reportedly discussed the prospect of implementing a stimulus plan involving the use of "helicopter money" as a tool for boosting stubbornly-low inflation.
Also on Wednesday, the dollar rose as much as 1.50% against the Turkish Lira to a record-high of 3.0974 after Standard & Poor's lowered Turkey's credit rating deeper into junk territory. Turkey president Recep Erdogan declared a three-month State of Emergency earlier on the day in the wake of last week's failed coup attempt. The Dollar has surged more than 7% against the Lira over the last four sessions.
Yields on the U.S. 10-Year gained three basis points on Wednesday to 1.58%. Despite the modest gains, yields on 10-year U.S. Treasuries are down more than 75 basis points over the last year.