020 7898 0500Needless to say the main factor affecting the US dollar against sterling this week has been the outcome of the UK general election which saw an immediate boost for sterling as exit polls showed that the Conservatives would stay in power.
Also the US economic data releases, especially over employment, haven’t been as good as hoped for. And today we have the release of the key Non-farm payroll figures for April which are forecast to show an increase of 230,000 but may fall short as the US struggles to recover from a weak first quarter.
One factor behind the poor first quarter was the strength of the US dollar and its effect on exports but it has now fallen more than 5% from the peak it saw against a basket of currencies in March.
