FX.co ★ Dollar Stabilizes as Fed’s Cook Stays for Now

The dollar index stabilized around 97.7 on Thursday following four consecutive sessions of losses. This stabilization occurred as the U.S. Supreme Court set a date in January to hear President Donald Trump's challenge to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, which helped ease some of the market's uncertainty. Concerns regarding central bank independence have intensified ever since Trump accused Cook of mortgage fraud while simultaneously pressuring the Fed to adopt more aggressive rate cuts. The dollar also came under pressure this week due to a government shutdown, marking the first occurrence in nearly seven years, after lawmakers failed to agree on a temporary funding deal. This deadlock, anticipated to persist for at least three days, will postpone the release of crucial data, including the nonfarm payrolls report for September. In a separate development, ADP reported an unexpected decrease of 32,000 in private payrolls for September, contrary to expectations of a 50,000 increase. This drop was attributed to data adjustments related to missing values in the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.