020 7898 0500The dollar just about held its own against sterling and the euro yesterday, despite some surprising economic data. Inflation pushed higher in the US, although the increase was only minimal and should not be of concern to the markets. If anything, it could serve as further encouragement for the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates when they convene next month, but then the markets are already widely expecting that to happen irrespective of any data between now and then.
In addition, retail sales in the US were better than expected, as analysts had expected no change at all. In actual fact, they came in at 0.2% which is encouraging for the US economy as we approach the end of 2017.
Today we will see the continuing jobless claims and the industrial production figures. It will be interesting to see what these figures are, not least because of the furore over the recent spate of hurricanes appears to have died down.
