The US dollar continued to dominate the Forex market today, rising against its major peers, as traders continued to speculate about the possibility of an interest rate hike in December.
While yesterday’s employment data released from the United States was disappointing, initial jobless claims released today showed a drop to 249,000 last week from 254,000 registered the week before. Experts had thought that the indicator would stay unchanged. That was a good sign ahead of very important non-farm payrolls due to release tomorrow.
Many speculators continue to bet on a December rate hike from the US Federal Reserve and yesterday’s comments from Chicago Fed President Charles Evans reinforced their confidence. Evans said:
I would not be surprised, and if data continue to roll in as they have, I would be fine with increasing the funds rate once by the end of this year.
Furthermore, the President said that, while he anticipates a rate increase in December, a November hike does not look impossible.
EUR/USD dropped from 1.1203 to 1.1150 as of 15:56 GMT today. USD/JPY climbed from 103.49 to 104.03, trading near the highest level since September 5. USD/CHF rallied from 0.9739 to 0.9806.
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