Forex Today: Yields, the Fed and the dollar

What you need to know on Thursday, May 20:

The dollar edged higher across the board, ending the day with gains against most major rivals. The FOMC released the Minutes of its latest meeting, and while the document showed that officials maintain their cautious stance, some of them are willing to discuss tapering in the next few meetings. That line triggered a run in yields, and put pressure on equities.

The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note peaked at 1.69%, to finish the day at 1.67%. Wall Street got to bounce from intraday lows, but the three major indexes closed in the red.

The EUR/USD pair settled around 1.2160, while GBP/USD hovers a handful of pips above the 1.4100 threshold. Commodity-lined currencies were affected by the poor performance of equities and falling gold and oil prices.

The bright metal surged to $1,889.96 a troy ounce, but trimmed most of its gains ahead of the close, ending the day around 1,870.00. WTI settled at $ 63.30 a barrel, bouncing from a fresh weekly low of 61.93.

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