FOREX-Dollar steady against peers as investors weigh Fed commentary on rates

By Chibuike Oguh and Canan Sevgili

NEW YORK/LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar held steady against major peers on Tuesday as investors weighed commentary from Federal Reserve officials on its monetary policy outlook, while the Swedish krona gained after the Riksbank delivered a hawkish 25-basis-point rate cut.

The dollar was up 0.03% to 0.792 against the Swiss franc CHF=EBS

The euro EUR=EBS was a touch lower at $1.1796 while sterling GBP=D3 was flat at $1.3510.

The Federal Reserve may be late in supporting the labor market and could need to speed the pace of rate cuts if demand conditions weaken and businesses begin to lay off workers, Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said on Tuesday.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to also speak on Tuesday. Other Fed officials including St. Louis Federal Reserve President Alberto Musalem and Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran had delivered remarks on Monday.

The dollar has been stable following the Fed interest rate cut but the most interesting thing is the strength of gold in the current environment, said Vassili Serebriakov, FX strategist at UBS in New York.

The dollar index =USD, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, was little changed at 97.34.

Money markets are currently pricing in a near-90% chance of a rate cut in October, down slightly from 92% a day earlier, per CME's FedWatch tool. Congressional funding talks this week to avert a government shutdown on September 30 have added to market jitters.

The dollar was up 0.05% to 147.75 against the Japanese yen JPY=EBS.

The Swedish krona SEK= gained 0.09% to 9.337 versus the dollar after the Riksbank delivered a hawkish 25-basis-point rate cut.

"The degree of SEK outperformance post meeting strikes us as somewhat at odds with the surprise decision and meeting guidance," Goldman Sachs analysts led by Stuart Jenkins said in an investor note. "Some of the currency strength may be attributable to the firmer German PMI data released at the same time as the decision."

Meanwhile, markets showed a largely muted reaction to a mixed bag of business survey readings in Europe.

While the data showed that euro zone business activity grew at its fastest pace in 16 months in September, it also pointed to French economic activity contracting the same month at the sharpest rate since April.

Among other currencies, the dollar sank nearly 4.5% against Argentina's peso ARS= after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday that "all options" were on the table for stabilising Argentina, including swap lines and direct currency purchases.

The Indian rupee weakened to an all-time record low of 88.7975 against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, pressured by the U.S. visa fee hike, muted foreign equity flows and a pick-up in hedging.