Read

No single headline caused this — the -28bp USD slide into the New York open is an acceleration of the standing dollar-lower trend ahead of today's 18:00 UTC FOMC minutes, and the pieces are all documented. The dollar index fell to roughly 99.5 Wednesday, resuming its decline toward multi-month lows as the Treasury selloff eased: the 30-year yield had spiked to a 19-year high above 5.33% on Tuesday on debt-issuance and inflation concerns, and the retreat (10-year easing toward 4.70% today) pulled the rate support out from under the dollar.

Layered on that is the weak-data run — Tuesday's July housing starts cratered 12.4% to a 1.24M pace, following last week's soft retail sales — which markets read as arguing against the hawkish wing of a divided Fed (three dissenters favored a hike in July; ~65% odds of a September hold priced).

The composition of the move confirms it is a dollar story with a rates tilt rather than a shock: all seven USD legs are red, and the outperformers are exactly the low-yielders that benefit when US yields ease — JPY strongest (USDJPY turned south toward 159 on continued BOJ September-hike speculation, pulling away from the 160 intervention-watch zone) and CHF second.

CAD sitting weakest on the crosses has no fresh CAD headline behind it that I can find — oil is actually firm (Brent near $92 on the Hormuz standoff), so it reads as the usual dollar-bloc tracking under a BoC held at 2.25%. On the Hormuz watch item: still tense but no new strike — the UAE detected two missiles that fell into its waters Tuesday (Iran denies firing them) and Trump reiterated no talks are underway — and nothing in this hour's tape is a war signature.

Nothing here makes the measured signals wrong about the regime; this is ordinary pre-minutes repricing along a trend the system can already see. No override. Next risk: FOMC minutes at 18:00 UTC, Trump at 18:30 UTC — note the minutes are flagged as potentially hawkish ('significant' inflation risks), which could reverse this move within hours.