020 7898 0500The big talking point for the US yesterday was the interest rate announcement. As expected, rates were kept on hold this time around, but the Fed did hint that they might be willing to let inflation exceed 2%. Interest rates are a means of curbing inflation and so you could infer that there won’t necessarily be a hike next time around. However, as it stands, the markets expect a June rate hike and the dollar’s performance in the coming weeks will in part be based on that assumption.
Earlier in the day, we saw the employment change for April which came in above expectations at 204,000. Analysts had forecasted that private business in the US hired 200,000 workers so that was some positive news.
Today we will see the balance of trade figures for March which are expected to contract from the month before, and we will also see the composite and services PMI data for April. Both are expected to show an increase from the month before. Non-manufacturing PMI is scheduled for release too and is expected to have dipped a little from 58.8 to 58.1.
