The US Dollar edged higher against the Pound and firmed against the Euro after the latest existing home sales data came in better than economists had been predicting.
According to the National Association of Realtors, sales of existing homes fell by 1.9% to an annual rate of 5.29 million. The decline is the first recorded in three months and shows that the housing market in the US retreated from close to a four-year high as higher mortgage rates and prices dissuade would be buyers. The figure is far better than the forecasted decline of 3.3%.
“Affordability has fallen to a five-year low as home price increases easily outpaced income growth,” said National Association of Realtors chief economist Lawrence Yun. “Expected rising mortgage interest rates will further lower affordability in upcoming months. Next month we may see some delays associated with the government shutdown.”
Also supporting the Greenback is the release of tomorrow’s delayed jobs data. As a result of the government shutdown the October 4th jobs data report was delayed until this week and investors are expecting it to show that hiring in the world’s largest economy picked up in September.
If the data comes in stronger than forecast then it could allay some of the concerns over the robustness of the US economy and the impacts of the shutdown. The markets will also be looking to the data to try and access whether the Federal Reserve will choose to postpone tapering its monetary easing programme.
US Dollar (USD) Current Exchange Rates
The US Dollar/Pound Sterling Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.6184
The US Dollar/Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.7311
The US Dollar/ Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.0299
The US Dollar/ Australian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.0340
The US Dollar/ New Zealand Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.1798
The US Dollar/Japanese Yen Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 98.0848
The US Dollar/ South African Rand Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 9.8300
The Pound Sterling/US Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.6168
The Euro/ US Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.3677
(Correct as of 15:35 pm GMT)
Comments are closed.