020 7898 0500The dollar enjoyed a fine day against sterling and the euro yesterday, climbing to its highest level against the pound for ten months. The moves came following some disappointing retail sales data from the UK, but some extremely positive initial jobless claims data helped the dollar’s cause too.
Just 207,000 people filed new claims for unemployment benefit in the week ending July 14, which was much better than the 220,000 the markets had been expecting. It is the lowest reading since the week ending 6 December 1969.
Trump took to Twitter to complain about the European Union’s $5 billion dollar fine for Google, saying that the EU has taken advantage of the US, but “not for long”. The comments might well be a symptom of the escalating tensions between the Trump administration and EU.
The Chinese yuan hit a one-year low against the dollar yesterday and there is speculation that Chinese policymakers are deliberately letting their currency weaken to combat the effects of the US trade tariffs.
