The US Dollar Marches On

Last week we saw the US dollar make further headway against its major pairings as expectations towards when interest rates will start going up there are still speculated over. The Federal Reserve aren’t giving any major clues as to when we can expect rates to rise, with most people split on when they’ll come, with some thinking summer and others later in the year.

The week ended with a few data releases fro the UK, including manufacturing and industrial production figures, which came out pretty much as forecast or just under and the NEISR GDP estimate again hit expectations at 0.6 percent. The low key US data had little effect as sentiment from investors stood clearly with the greenback which made 3 cents gain over the week from sterling and a similar tally against the single currency as it continues to edge closer to parity.

As the race for Number 10 continues to have an underlying pressure on the pound, what else will this week throw up to move investor sentiment? We have to wait until Tuesday for anything of note when we see UK inflation figures and US retail sales. The inflation figure is key when it comes to the debate on when UK interest rates might start to rise, so investors will be keeping a keen eye on the figures released at 9.30am.

On Wednesday its more EU focused with the release of trade balance figures and the ECB interest rate setting meet and press conference. Its six weeks since the last meeting so with events in Greece developing and the QE program rumbling on, will Mario Draghi mention anything to help or hinder the single currency? Wednesday finishes of stateside with the Bank of Canada interest rate meet and policy statement coming out at 3pm and 5.15pm respectively.

Overnight Thursday there is a raft of Australian releases surrounding unemployment and the week closes with a busy day across the globe with UK employment data, Canadian, EU and US inflation figures and Canadian retail sales, whilst we also have the IMF meeting on Friday to no doubt among other things, talk about Greece.

Plenty to cause a commotion in the markets so make sure to stay in touch with the team here at CI with any upcoming transfers.