020 7898 0500Friday saw plenty of excitement for the dollar with three key economic data releases. Initially there was weakness for the American currency, thanks to the release of Non-Farm Payroll figures below expectation – but this was soon turned around thanks to a fall in unemployment from 5% to 4.9% and above expectation average earnings growth. All in all, the US dollar finished the day around a cent stronger than that morning.
The early part of this week is expected to be relatively quiet on the dollar front, until Wednesday when the Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is due to testify on the Semi-annual Monetary Policy report before the House Financial Services Committee in Washington DC. This committee is spread across two days and we should expect to see some volatility in the dollar’s performance during the question and answer session. Thursday also brings us the release of US unemployment claims data; this has missed expectations four out of the last five weeks running so investors will be keeping a close eye on these figures. Finally on Friday, we will see preliminary consumer sentiment data released after US retail sales figures; these are expected to grow.
