The past trading week had been expected to be rather uneventful due to few important economic releases and abbreviated trading because of Good Friday. Yet the bombings in Brussels made it anything but quiet. As a result, the US dollar ended the week with gains as traders flocked to the US currency.
Analysts had been bearish to neutral on the dollar ahead of the week. Yet the major stipulation to the forecast was “unless some big surprise occurs.” So happened, the tragedy in the Belgian capital was that surprise which threw all forecasts out of window as traders fled to the safety of the US currency.
There were also other reasons for the rally of the dollar. Several Federal Reserve members were talking about a possibility of another interest rate hike as soon as next month. Despite the holiday, data on US gross domestic product was released on Friday. The economy grew by 1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2015 according the final revision of the report — more than analysts’ expectations and the previous estimates.
EUR/USD dropped from 1.1268 to 1.1163. GBP/USD plunged 2.3% from 1.4458 to 1.4133. AUD/USD sank 1.3% from 0.7594 to 0.7502.
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