Currency Note US Dollar

Mixed performance for the US dollar

By Ricky Bean January 22nd, 2015

The US dollar had a relatively quiet and mixed day yesterday, with events elsewhere in the world taking precedence over US activities. One Stateside piece of data of interest came in the shape of the building permits figure. This came out slightly worse than anticipated, showing an unexpected small decline. This injected some weakness into the dollar, as it detracted somewhat from the pressure to raise interest rates. However, other events had the bigger impact. A weakening sterling saw the dollar gain ground against its UK counterpart, but it fell against the euro.

Today brings with it just the single data point of note from the US, which comes from the unemployment claims. With the labour market closely linked to the Federal Reserve’s decision over interest rates, a positive showing in this area could benefit the dollar as people look for signs of a stronger economy.