Investing.com – The U.S. dollar is down slightly at the start of the week from a recent year-to-date high that does not include substantive macroeconomic data but does include comments from multiple Fed speakers.

At 04:50 ET (09:50 GMT), the Dollar Index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of six other currencies, was trading 0.1% lower at 106.497, just off its yearly high of 106.72.

The index is up 1.6% over the past week, marking six weeks of gains in the last seven.

The dollar remains robust

The dollar has benefited from a structural upward shift since the election of Donald Trump at the beginning of the month, and the macro situation did not really give any reason for reflection.

“Inflation data were hotter than the Federal Reserve’s target would be tolerated, and Chairman Jerome Powell added a layer of caution on future monetary easing in a speech last week,” ING analysts said in a note.

“With very little additional information on the U.S. economy added this week, the market-implied divergence in policy from the Fed and most other G10 central banks may mean that any positioning-driven correction will be short-lived.”

At least seven Fed speakers are on the agenda this week, starting later Monday with the Chicago Fed president. While widely considered dovish, most officials are expected to exercise caution on aggressive cuts.

Futures have a 60% chance of the Fed easing monetary policy by a quarter of a point in December, with only 77 basis points of cuts priced in by the end of 2025, down from more than 100 basis points a few weeks ago.

Euro exchange rate down

In Europe, shares rose 0.3% to 1.0568 ahead of speeches by a number of European Central Bank officials, including the governor.

Those speakers are likely to sound quite dovish, even after preliminary October data released last week showed the block grew faster than market watchers expected in the third quarter.

That said, quarterly growth of 0.4% showed that the euro zone economy remains delicate, with its largest part – the German economy – being particularly tender.

ECB officials will also have to take into account the risk that tariffs will hit EU trade following the election of Donald Trump as US president.

The week will end with the publication of the latest data on activity in the euro zone, which will be carefully analyzed by traders.

“PMIs are becoming an increasingly important message for the euro zone after the European Central Bank shifted its focus from inflation to growth and now takes into account a wider range of soft activity data,” ING added.

strengthened to 1.2622 before Wednesday’s release of data from Great Britain for October.

Economists expect the annual inflation rate to rise by 2.2%, up from 1.7% in September, marking the first time in more than three years that the annual inflation rate has fallen below the BoE’s 2% target.

Earlier this month, the BoE cut interest rates for the second time by 25 basis points and said further cuts were likely to come gradually following the recent UK government’s first budget.

Ueda does not want to signal a December augment

rose 0.2% to 154.64 after the Bank of Japan governor reiterated that interest rates would continue to rise gradually, but did not mention whether the augment would come in December.

The lack of clear guidance led to the yen retreating after it strengthened delayed last week after Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato warned of possible intervention if the yen falls too much, too quickly.

rose 0.2% to 7.2416, just above a three-month high, with sentiment toward China strained by the prospect of high U.S. trade tariffs on the country under the Trump administration.