• The US Dollar pops up on the back of Fed rate pause. 
• Traders buy the Greenback after Powell pushes back on March rate cut. 
• The US Dollar Index has 104 in reach if it is able to advance this Thursday. 

The US Dollar (USD) pops higher on the back of the first rate decision from the US Federal Reserve and commentary from the US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Although Powell pushed back against a March rate cut, that a cut is coming did not get dismissed. In the same push-and-pull pattern markets have seen over the past few weeks, the current US Dollar strength looks to be a mere repricing of the timing of the rate cut, with risk of the US Dollar Index being unable to walk away from that 200-day Simple Moving Average near 103.55.

On the economic front, traders are making their way to the US Jobs Report on Friday, with the weekly Initial Jobless Claims out on Thursday. The other main event on Thursday is the latest data from the Institute of Supply Management (ISM). Thus a lot of manufacturing data and components are to hit markets later on Thursday