The Federal Reserve completed its taper of asset-buying in the QE3 program, sparking a 1-cent rally in the US dollar across the board.
The dollar had been softer on the day heading into the decision and rallied dramatically afterwards. Not only did the Fed end QE, which was generally expected, but they also toned down a statement citing “significant” slack in the labor market to say “a range of labor market indicators suggests that underutilization of labor resources is gradually diminishing.”
The New Zealand dollar is the largest loser in percentage terms, down 1.05% after climbing as much as 0.7% in the hours before the decision. Cable is also soft but the dollar weakness is broad based.