USD/CHF attracts some buyers above 0.8800 amid mounting Russia-Ukraine tensions

• USD/CHF rebounds to near 0.8835 in Wednesday's early European session. 
• Markets have pared bets for a 25 bp) interest-rate cut at the December meeting. 
• Any signs of escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine could boost the CHF, a safe-haven currency.

The USD/CHF pair recovers some lost ground to around 0.8835, snapping the three-day losing streak during the early European session on Wednesday. The growing expectations for a less aggressive policy easing by the Federal Reserve (Fed) provide some support to the pair. Later on Wednesday, the Fed Lisa Cook and Michelle Bowman are set to speak. 

The hawkish remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell lifts the USD broadly. Powell said that he wasn't 'in a hurry' to lower interest rates, which reduced the possibility of rate cuts in December to less than 60%, down from 82% earlier in the week. Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid said it remains uncertain how far interest rates can fall, but the recent cuts by the Fed indicate confidence that inflation is heading toward its 2% target.

On the Swiss front, heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine, and its allies in the West might boost the safe-haven flows, benefiting the Swiss Franc CHF). Russia's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that Ukraine fired six ballistic missiles at a facility in Bryansk and that ATACMS missiles had been used in the attack.