Currency Note US Dollar

An eventful New Year for the US dollar

By Ricky Bean January 4th, 2016

We’ve seen the US dollar trading narrowly against its rivals in the relatively quiet week we’ve had, although following on from the US currency’s excellent year, we saw the US dollar-sterling rate trading close to its strongest levels since April 2015.

On the last day of the year, we saw the US release their Pending Home Sales data, with a worse than expected result of -0.9%, compared to the previous figure of 0.2%; and US Initial Jobless Claims data at a figure of 287,000, compared to 267,000 previously. Counteracting the poor Employment data, we saw a neutral Continuing Jobless Claims data result released, at 2.198 million, compared to the previous 2.195 million, which left the dollar trading narrowly in a sideways trend.

The start of 2016 compensates for the end of a quiet 2015, with a basket full of data released from the US, including US Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index data, Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) Meeting Minutes, Initial Jobless Claims data, and the US Unemployment rate. All of these results should have a significant impact on the strength of the US dollar; and could cause movement for the dollar against its major currency pairings.

With this New Year flurry of activity for the US dollar, contact your trader today to see how it will affect you and to plan an appropriate currency strategy.