The US dollar was weaker against the vast majority of most traded currencies (with the exclusion of the Japanese yen) today. Most US economic reports released from the United States over the Thursday’s trading session were bad, leading to speculations that monetary tightening from the Federal Reserve would be very gradual.
Durable goods orders sank 5.1 percent during December, far more than the 0.6 percent drop predicted by analysts. Pending home sales were almost unchanged even though experts had predicted a substantial 1 percent increase. The only relatively positive piece of data was the report about unemployment claims that showed a decrease from 294,000 to 278,000 last week.
Yesterday, the Fed issued a relatively cautious statement, making traders speculate that the US central bank is not going to perform another rate hike soon. Today’s macroeconomic data supported such view as the US economy does not look healthy enough to withstand quick monetary firming.
EUR/USD rallied from 1.0893 to 1.0937 as of 22:10 GMT today. GBP/USD climbed from 1.4232 to 1.4358. USD/JPY gained a little from 118.66 to 118.80 after touching the session low of 118.41 intraday.
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