Currency Note US Dollar

US dollar has a mixed day

By Smart Currency December 2nd, 2014

Monday saw the US dollar fluctuate, weakening against the majority of its peers as commodity prices recovered and data released showed a big decline in consumer spending on “Black Friday”; however, these losses were limited as US manufacturing data came out on Monday afternoon stronger than initially expected. The Institute of Supply Management showed the Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 58.7 last month from a reading of 59.0 in October. However this was still markedly better than expected, with most experts anticipating the manufacturing PMI to drop as low as to 57.9 in November.

Yesterday evening, a member of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) stated his belief that it is still too early to consider raising interest rates and that a rate hike in the middle of next year would be reasonable.

Later on today we will see Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen speaking, as well as two other members of the FOMC. Speculators will keep a close eye on the comments in these speeches to look for further clues as to when we could see interest rates rise in the US.