020 7898 0500The dollar climbed against the euro once more on Friday to post a pretty good week; it traded sideways against sterling all week. The main release was the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment which came in much higher than expected to post an impressive figure. It was forecast to drop from 99.7 to 99.3, but the figure actually came in at 102. It appears that Trump’s economic programme is proving popular at the moment. What a trade war might do to that remains to be seen.
However, his political programme appears to be a little more mixed, with the firing of Rex Tillerson who, as a decent diplomat, was seen as being too ‘traditional’ for Trump. Gary Cohn has been confirmed as his new economic adviser who has already issued a warning to China. We are set for a crazy few weeks but then what’s new?
The key release of the week is the Fed rate hike decision on Wednesday. The markets have it down as 100% probability rates will increase and who are we to argue? Any dollar strengthening will likely come as a result of accompanying sentiment rather than the decision itself and the possibility of more than the three forecast increases in 2018. We will also see existing home sales, a raft of PMI data, and new home sales. An extremely hectic week. Strap in.
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