US Dollar Trading Update

Posted on | June 22, 2010 |

Last week’s UK data were uninspiring but did no great damage, while the US numbers helped undermine the dollar.

The story from the States was largely similar to that of the previous week.

In essence, investors cannot really see the point of buying the dollar (or the yen, for that matter) when they are relaxed about the global economic outlook.

They can even less see the point when the US economy contrives to deliver downbeat economic statistics. There were not especially many of them, just enough to remind the market that it was leaving the dollar alone for the moment. Also see the spread betting markets.

The US Treasury’s TIC report on long-term capital flows showed inward investment falling by 40% to $83 billion in April. The NAHB housing market index, a barometer of confidence among house builders with a scale of 0-100, slumped from 22 to 17. US housing starts were down by 10% in May and building permits fell by 7%.

None of the figures was horrendous; it was just that none was good enough to encourage the dollar higher.

Weekly FX Review from www.moneycorp.com.

Comments