By Gina Lee

Investing.com – The dollar was down on Thursday morning in Asia, with the U.S. Federal Reserve in a hawkish pivot.

That tracks the greenback relative to other currencies fell 0.13% by 10:00 PM ET (3:39 GMT)

This pair climbed 0.09% to 114.1

This pair fell 0.13% to 0.75158. The Australian Bureau of Statistics provided data showing that there were 366,100 jobs, 128,300 full-time employment, and a 4.6% unemployment rate in November.

This pair fell by 0.9% to 0.6765

At 6.3675, the pair was unchanged. However, it dropped 0.08% at 1.3252.

It will increase its asset tapering program by $30 billion per month. This was announced in Wednesday’s policy meeting. To combat inflation, the central banks also maintained its 25-year-old interest rate at 25%. It will raise its rates by 3 quarters in 2022, then another 3 in 2023 and 4 in 2023.

“The economy no longer needs increasing amounts of policy support,” said Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Powell compared the situation in near-depression at the start of COVID-19 2020 to the current high prices and rising wages as well as the rapid recovery in the employment market.

“It suggests to me that markets were positioned for the Fed being more hawkish than survey expectations would have you believe. Also, that risk assets took the latest pivot so well reinforces the fact that the U.S. dollar and risk sentiment seem to be negatively correlated,” NAB head of FX strategy Ray Atrill told Reuters.

Investors will be watching the policy decisions of (ECB and) BOE later in the day. The Bank of Japan’s decision on Friday is expected to come on Friday.

“To some extent, the reaction to the Fed might have to wait for what the ECB does, because we’re expecting the contrast between the ECB’s disposition and the Fed’s will be laid bare later tonight and that could probably be a catalyst for the U.S. dollar to push through the highs overnight,” said Atrill.

Investors are betting the ECB will end its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program but they don’t expect an increase in interest rates.

BOE is trying to reduce inflation and ease concerns over the rapidly-spreading Omicron variant. On Wednesday, U.K. data revealed that the (CPI grew 5.1% annually in November. This is its highest growth in 10 years. The index grew 0.7% per month.