USD: good day for the dollar as it climbs against sterling and the euro

The dollar retraced some recent losses against the euro and sterling yesterday, but the situation is still far from settled for the greenback. It has been steadily declining against both currencies in 2018 and yesterday did little to reverse this trend. The main release of note was industrial production, which increased by 0.5% month-over-month in March 2018 to beat expectations of a 0.4% gain.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund cautioned against rising protectionism in the global economy. Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on steel and aluminium imports set the ball rolling earlier this year, and it is a situation that threatens to worsen. There is still hope that the US and China can come to some sort of deal, but we have already seen what effect the fears of a trade war have had on the eurozone.

Today is a fairly quiet one for US economic data, but it is a rare day indeed that something newsworthy doesn’t come out of America.