The US Dollar recovered ground against the Pound on Thursday but remained mixed against other peers following the release of data which showed that the US economy is recovering well.
According to the US Commerce Department, Gross Domestic Product expanded at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.6% in the third quarter, defying expectations for growth of 3% and beat economist expectations for a figure of 2.8%.
In a separate report the Labour Department said that the number of US citizens making unemployment benefit claims fell by 23,000 to 298,000 in the week ending on November 30th, the lowest reading since September. Economists had been expecting the figure to increase to 320,000.
“The labour market continues to improve. Not only is the rates of layoffs slowing precipitously, more people are finding work,” said a senior US economist at Societe Generale.
Continuing unemployment claims don’t include Americans who have exhausted traditional state aid and are receiving emergency and extended benefits under federal programs. Those job seekers rose by about 45,300 to 1.35 million in the week ended Nov. 16th.
Against the Euro the ‘Greenback’ fell after the single currency climbed to a five-week after the European Central Bank governor Mario Draghi made no comments suggesting that policy makers were considering introducing negative interest rates.
“It’s what Draghi didn’t say that is pushing the Euro higher. There is no indication of negative deposit rates or further easing,” said a senior currency strategist at Commerzbank AG.
The positive US data also saw the ‘Greenback’ rise against the Australian Dollar and Canadian Dollar as investors increased their bets that the Federal Reserve will taper its bond buying programme, a move which would weaken the commodity and emerging market currencies, but strengthen the US currency.
US Dollar (USD) Current Exchange Rates
The US Dollar/Pound Sterling Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.6123
The US Dollar/Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.7330
The US Dollar/ Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.0688
The Pound Sterling/US Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.6332
The Euro/ US Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.3640
(Correct as of 15:00 pm GMT)
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