The US Dollar is a little higher against the Pound and hit a two-week high against the Euro following the release of a plethora of data that painted a mixed picture for the USA’s economic performance for July.
Weaker than expected US data caused investors to scratch their heads as the figures did not assist their ability to comprehend as to whether the Federal Reserve would opt to taper its monetary easing programme sooner rather than later. The mixed data disappointed investors from all over the globe and caused them to instead turn their attention to events next week.
The most disappointing data was that for consumer spending. According to the US Commerce Department, consumer purchases, which account for around 70% of the nation’s economy increased by just 0.1% down from the 0.2% recorded in the previous month.
“Its difficult for consumers to increase their spending as Americans face concern about the stability of the labour market and whether they’re going to have their jobs as well as the need to rebuild up savings. There is some pent up demand out there,” said Gus Faucher, senior economist at PNC Financial Services Group.
On a more positive note the Chicago purchasing managers index came in at the forecasted level of 53.0, beating the 52.3 posted in July. The University of Michigan confidence managed to beat forecasts of 80.5 by coming in at 82.1.
Next week will likely see the Dollar experience volatility as events in the Middle East look set to continue to escalate after France announced that it will assist the United States in taking action over last week’s chemical weapons deployment in the Arab country. Also likely to cause unrest in the markets will be the increasing speculation that Fed will reduce its monetary easing programme in September.
Current US Dollar (USD) Exchange Rates
The US Dollar/Pound Sterling Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.6441
The US Dollar/Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.7549
The US Dollar/Australian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.1183
The US Dollar/Japanese Yen Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 98.0340
The US Dollar/Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.0521
(Correct as of 15:25 pm GMT)
Comments are closed.