{"id":38882,"date":"2026-01-13T01:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T17:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/uncategorized\/amid-concerns-regarding-fed-independence-the-pound-sterling-climbs-to-roughly-1-3465-against-the-dollar\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T01:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T17:03:11","slug":"amid-concerns-regarding-fed-independence-the-pound-sterling-climbs-to-roughly-1-3465-against-the-dollar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/live-updates\/amid-concerns-regarding-fed-independence-the-pound-sterling-climbs-to-roughly-1-3465-against-the-dollar\/","title":{"rendered":"Amid concerns regarding Fed independence, the Pound Sterling climbs to roughly 1.3465 against the Dollar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Pound Sterling rebounds to around 1.3465 against the US Dollar, recovering from an earlier low of 1.3390. This follows the US Dollar&#8217;s sharp decline amid a Federal Reserve investigation involving Jerome Powell. Currently, the US Dollar Index is down 0.3%, trading close to 98.80. <\/p>\n<p>A US Department of Justice subpoena investigates Powell&#8217;s June 2025 Senate testimony and financial records. Powell argues the charges are politically driven, as he faces criticism from President Donald Trump for interest rate decisions. The situation may impact the Federal Reserve&#8217;s independence and the US Dollar&#8217;s strength.<\/p>\n<h3>Influence on UK Economy<\/h3>\n<p>In the UK, upcoming employment data and wage growth are expected to influence the Pound Sterling. UK firms remain wary over hiring due to increased social security contributions. The US saw an unemployment rate drop to 4.4% in December, although job growth numbers underperformed. US inflation data, scheduled for Tuesday, is anticipated to affect future Federal Reserve interest rate decisions. <\/p>\n<p>The Pound Sterling is currently trading around 1.3465, maintaining a bullish trajectory. At the same time, the 20-day EMA stands at 1.3438. A resistance level of 1.3496 marks a potential continuation of the current bullish trend.<\/p>\n<p>The criminal charges against the Federal Reserve Chair are creating significant uncertainty, which is a key driver for derivatives pricing. We are seeing a spike in currency volatility, with the CVIX index, a measure of G7 currency volatility, jumping to a 12-month high of 9.5 in yesterday&#8217;s trading. In the coming weeks, traders should consider buying options to profit from these expected large price swings in the US Dollar.<\/p>\n<h3>Market Options and Strategies<\/h3>\n<p>This direct challenge to the Fed&#8217;s independence is a major bearish signal for the US Dollar, as political interference in monetary policy erodes investor confidence. We haven&#8217;t seen this level of political pressure since the 1970s, which was a period that led to high inflation and a weaker dollar. Therefore, positioning for further dollar weakness seems prudent, especially against safe-haven currencies like the Swiss Franc.<\/p>\n<p>In the options market, we are already seeing a significant increase in demand for protection against a falling dollar. The one-month 25-delta risk reversal for the US Dollar Index has flipped negative, indicating that put options, which profit from a fall, are now more expensive than call options. Traders should consider buying out-of-the-money put options on dollar-tracking ETFs or call options on pairs like GBP\/USD.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding the Pound Sterling specifically, the currency is showing technical strength, but the upcoming UK employment data is a risk factor. Buying GBP\/USD call options with a strike price above the key resistance level of 1.3500 could be a smart way to gain upside exposure while limiting downside risk. This strategy protects a trader if the UK labor data, which showed soft demand in 2025, disappoints the market.<\/p>\n<p>All eyes will be on the US Consumer Price Index data tomorrow, which is forecast to remain at 2.7%. If inflation comes in higher than expected, it will put the Fed in an extremely difficult position between its mandate to control prices and the political pressure to ease policy. This conflict will likely fuel more volatility, making straddle or strangle option strategies on the USD attractive through the data release.<\/p>\n<p><b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/trade-now\/\">Create your live VT Markets account<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/myaccount.vtmarkets.com\/login\">start trading<\/a>\u00a0now. <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pound Sterling rebounds as US Dollar weakens amid Fed investigation, with markets eyeing inflation data ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":17035,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-updates"],"acf":{"acf_article_selection_author":null},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}