US Dollar slumps as traders get ready for the FOMC – Market wrap for the North American session - September 16

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Log in to today's North American session Market wrap for September 16

Trump shook markets today after signing Miran’s papers for him to join the Federal Reserve committee, just hours before the start of the central bank’s 2-day meeting.

The Fed's independence is in question here with the move from Donald Trump to appoint his Economic Adviser at the FED just as the meeting commences.

The move sent the US Dollar tumbling close to its 2025 lows (96.55 today vs. 96.37 on July 1st), igniting a new wave of selling.

Dollar bears came back in force, with the Swiss franc standing out as the preferred hedge against the greenback’s weakness ahead of tomorrow’s session.

This breakdown was actually highlighted throughout yesterday's DXY analysis but accelerated as markets received the Miran news.

USDCHF is finishing the session down about 1% but was down about 1.20% at its lows.

Furthermore, with the SNB's main rate at the border of 0%, in case a jumbo 50 bps cut takes place, the rate differential would decrease and rendering the CHF as an optimal hedge.

This play is more fundamental for institutional participants who have billions of dollars that will be affected by tomorrow's decision.

Nonetheless, the current market pricing is largely skewed towards a 25 bps.

The curve steepened aggressively along the move in the US Dollar, and as can be seen on several of our FX articles, the US Dollar hit now lows on the year against the Euro and the CHF.

On other subjects, Trump also announced fresh agreements with China on TikTok which will preview a call between the US President and China's Xi.

Read More:

• Examining US bonds and the yield curve before the FOMC decision
• Swiss franc leads majors as US session begins and reclaims 2025 crown
• Guide to the FOMC statement and September SEP: Key takeaways and what to watch

Cross-Assets Daily Performance

Cross-Asset Daily Performance, September 16, 2025 – Source: TradingView

Softs and energy commodities rallied, boosted again by the US Dollar slump. Concerning only energy commodities, they are getting targeted from bulls due to Russia's menaces to slow down production amid continued (and successful) Ukrainian attacks.

Gold and metals had quite a mixed session with the bullion hitting the $3,700 landmark right before retracting in a hesitant afternoon. Traders will get more clarity after the Powell speech.

For the rest, cryptos were mixed with BTC up small, some altcoins like OP, BNB and Polkadot leading the charge, while ETH retraced a bit.

Equities also offered quite a weird session, with all of them trading to their all-time highs during the futures-only session (pre-open) before retracting as they hit Fibonacci-targets. This is typical of a low volume session but tomorrow should be quite different (and volatile).

A picture of today's performance for major currencies

Currency Performance, September 16 – Source: OANDA Labs

As mentioned in the introduction, FX volatility was insane in today's session, particularly for a pre-FOMC day.

Traders rushed to hedge their bets with the EUR and CHF which accelerated the move in the Dollar Index which had started in yesterday's session.

Tomorrow will be very interesting, particularly in the EURUSD and USDCHF pairs.

A look at Economic data releasing in tonight and tomorrow's sessions

For all market-moving economic releases and events, see the MarketPulse Economic Calendar.

The upcoming 24 hours in trading should offer one of the most intense session in a long while.

The evening session will focus on the New Zealand Consumer Survey and the Japanese trade data for August but these will be relatively low-tier data compared to what's coming up tomorrow:

The 17th of September session starts at 2:00 A.M. ET with the UK CPI that had previously surprised to the upside, notably pushing back cuts for the BoE (with none planned ahead of Thursday's rate decision). Let's see if tomorrow changes the theme.

ECB's Lagarde will then continue her series of speeches at 3:30 A.M. at an annual ECB conference in Frankfurt which will also pre-empt the 5:00 A.M. CPI for the Eurozone.

The NA session will then commence with Building Permits and Housing Starts at 8:30 A.M., followed by the Bank of Canada rate decision at 9:45 (a 25 bps cut is planned, but not fully priced) and will attract interest to its 10:30 press conference held by BoC Governor Macklem.

The real session will start at 14:00 E.T. with the FOMC rate decision which has been anticipated for too long now.

Keep an eye on the SEP's (discover what to focus on here) and most importantly, Jerome Powell's speech at 14:30.

Safe Trades and successful trading ahead of the FOMC!

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