US Dollar ends the week on a high

The US Dollar was the big winner on Friday, after monthly figures showed 55,000 more jobs than expected were added to the US economy in February. On top of the non-farm payrolls announcement, it was revealed that all 31 major US banks passed the Federal Reserve’s annual “stress test” for the first time since the tests began in 2009. These pieces of good news for the US economy sent the US Dollar soaring in value, with the price of buying Dollars or sending money to the USA increasing by over 1% in Friday’s afternoon trading.

The movement in the Dollar also meant that as well as this fall in GBP-USD, rates for EUR-USD reached their lowest since 2004 on Friday.

Pound gains against Euro

The Pound also hit a fresh post-2007 high against the Euro on Friday. Eurozone GDP figures were released bang on expectations, at 0.9% growth for 2014, but the stronger US Dollar helped to send the Euro to cheaper levels, great news for those of you looking to secure rates for a purchase in the single currency zone.

The week ahead

This week we start off with a quieter day on the data front, although the Eurogroup meets again, and later in the week we have the New Zealand interest rate decision, Australian unemployment and US retail sales. There is no major UK data except trade balance (Thursday) and industrial production (Wednesday). With the general election now only around 2 months away, will the Pound start to fall back as political instability starts to play on the markets?