Currency Note US Dollar

US Dollar strongest against sterling in year

By Ricky Bean November 14th, 2014

A quiet start to the week for the US dollar evolved into one of mixed results as activity increased later in the week. Slight increases on Monday were lost throughout Tuesday, where the Veteran Day bank holiday saw the dollar lose out against most, aside from a weakening Japanese yen. Mid week brought varied results, as data results from stateside continued to be hard to come by. Despite this, the currency made significant ground against sterling following the latest Bank of England’s inflation report.

Yesterday, US unemployment claims and job openings figure from the labour market came out behind expectations, while words from a member of the Federal Reserve also caused some negativity. William Dudley from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,stated that he felt an early rise in interest rates would be a bigger risk than raising them too late, dampening speculation that we could see a hike in interest rates in the near future. As a result, the US dollar lost ground against the euro, but continued to strengthen against a weak sterling.

Overnight we heard US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen speak, while today holds some final key releases ahead of the weekend. Firstly are the retail sales figures, alongside the import prices. Following these is the preliminary consumer sentiment data from the University of Michigan.