020 7898 0500The dollar today pushed back up above the 1.60 level following a strong performance last night at the US Federal Reserve meeting, which saw the completion of the central bank’s quantitative easing programme. Despite this, the currency began to weaken throughout the day after jobless claims rose and growth was above expectations at 3.5% in the third quarter, higher than the forecast of 3% but down from the previous quarters 4.6%. Even though it was above forecast, with consumer and business spending decreasing this was not seen as positive news for the currency.
Yesterday jobless claims came out at 287,000, keeping below the 300,000 mark for 7 weeks in a row. This was slightly above the predicted figure of 283,000. Overall, the reports have proved the Fed’s view that the economy is strong at the moment, keeping an early rate hike possible for now.
