Today, the US dollar traded broadly lower against most of its major counterparts, with the exclusion of the Japanese yen, after mixed macroeconomic indicators from the United States and news from Europe.
US initial unemployment claims rose by 11,000 to 278,000 last week. Yet the report was not considered completely bad as analysts have expected an even bigger increase. The trade balance was the really disappointing indicator as it showed a higher deficit in December than in November even though forecasters promised the trade gap to shrink.
The dollar fell after the reports as well as after the news from Europe. Admittedly, the market reaction to the announcement of the European Central Bank was a bit puzzling as it should have spoiled the market sentiment. Yet traders were buying riskier currencies, not safer ones, for some reason.
EUR/USD gained from 1.1342 to 1.1471 and GBP/USD advanced from 1.5179 to 1.5326 as of 19:53 GMT today. At the same time, USD/JPY rose from 117.27 to 117.51.
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