USD/CHF steady near mid-0.97s ahead of FOMC

The USD/CHF pair is trading in a tight 35-pip range on Wednesday as investors are getting ready for the release of the highly-anticipated FOMC September meeting minutes later in the NA session. As of writing, the pair was at 0.9742, losing 0.06% on the day.

The fact that the economic calendar won't be featuring any macro data from the U.S. is likely to force the pair remain in its daily range during the first half of the NA session. In the meantime, major equity indexes in the U.S. point to a mixed opening today with the Dow Jones Industrial Average adding 0.3% and the S&P 500 losing 0.08% in premarket trading, making it difficult for the pair to find direction via the market sentiment. 

Earlier in the day, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said that fundamentals for the U.S. economy was looking very strong and added that the global and the European economy were also showing improvements. However, the market reaction to these comments was non-existent ahead of the day's main event, the minutes of the September FOMC meeting. 

• US: Deciphering the September Fed minutes - ING

“Policymakers are likely to ‘look through’ the noise in weather-affected economic data and focus instead on the underlying picture which has remained robust. The updated ‘dot plot’ of individual members showed no change to the median expectation of one further hike this year," Lloyds Bank analysts wrote in a recent report. In case the FOMC minutes ramp up the expectations for another rate hike before the end of the year, we could see another short-term rally in the US Dollar Index, which has been fluctuating near the 93 mark throughout the day. 

Technical outlook

The first technical support for the pair could be seen at 0.9720 (20-DMA) ahead of 0.9645 (100-DMA/50-DMA) and 0.9590 (Sep. 20 low). On the upside, resistances align at 0.9800 (psychological level/May 29 high),f 0.9850 (May 17 high) and 0.9935 (Apr. 23 high). The RSI indicator on the daily graph is moving sideways a tad above the 50 mark, reflecting the subdued trading action.