020 7898 0500It was a busy day for the US dollar on Friday, with continued strength following average hourly earnings and unemployment rate data, which turned out as expected. The focus for the US dollar this week was on the non-farm employment change figures, which came out slightly worse than expected – however, with continued sterling weakness following the Bank of England (BoE)’s ‘Super Thursday’, the impact of the non-farm employment change data was muted, with the US dollar continuing to strengthen against sterling.
We can expect another busy week for the US economy this week, with numerous important data releases. Monday starts the week off with US Federal Reserve member Lockhart speaking; he is expected to touch on the possibility of an interest rate rise. On Tuesday and Wednesday respectively we see the release of non-farm productivity and JOLTS job openings data – both expected to show slight increases on the previous month.
However, the focus this week will be on retail sales data which is expected to show much better growth than the previous month’s negative figure. Weekly unemployment claims data is also will also be released, but this is expected to show a stable figure.
Friday will see a basket full of releases with producer inflation figures, as well as industrial production data – both expected to show slight declines. We will also see consumer sentiment data, which is an indicator of consumer spending – this is expected to show a slight increase.
Given that this week will be a busy one for the US economy, there are plenty of opportunities for surprises to occur, which could affect US dollar strength.
