Currency Note US Dollar

Strong sterling pushes the dollar further down

By Smart Currency June 19th, 2015

A busy week for the US dollar has seen it continue to weaken. Mixed data throughout the week saw the US dollar weaken up to four cents against sterling and two cents against the Euro. Sterling, of course, has had a very positive week – which is another reason that we have seen the US dollar against sterling weaken so quickly.

In terms of data for the week, we experienced worse-than-expected industrial and manufacturing data, which started off the movement. On Tuesday we had housing and building data, which was very mixed. Wednesday was the focus of the week though, with the US Federal Reserve statement and rate decision; as expected, rates were kept on hold, and there were very dovish views regarding a possible interest rate rise, and a downgrade of economic forecasts as per the International Monetary Fund. This meant the US dollar market weakened further, pushing back the expectation of a rate hike until last quarter this year. Inflation data also failed to help the US dollar’s case for strength, as this came out just short of expectation.

No data is expected today, but we do have US Federal Reserve member Williams speaking; we expect to hear their view on the recent Federal Reserve statement.