USD/GBP And USD/EUR Fluctuate As Fed Speculation Dominates

Published: 24 Sep at 5 PM Tags: Euro, Dollar, Pound Sterling, America, Eurozone, USA,

The US Dollar fluctuated today as Federal Reserve tapering speculation continued to dictate market movement, with the ‘Greenback’ alternately posting declines and gains.

Yesterday, Fed officials lowered the odds of stimulus being trimmed next month as they pledged their support for US easing remaining accommodative, and today less-than-impressive domestic data added to the argument for bond buying staying at 85 billion Dollars until 2014.

Although the US house price index climbed by 1.0 per cent in July, month-on-month, instead of the 0.8 per cent expected, the nation’s consumer confidence index slumped from an upwardly revised 81.8 in August to a four-month low of 79.7 in September.

The result was slightly worse than the 79.9 expected.

In response to the report economist Stephen Stanley stated; ‘The consumer is in a cautious, wait-and-see mode, with geopolitical uncertainties in the news lately, as well as the looming budget battle. It’s not a terrible situation, but actual spending has been tepid this year.’

The Richmond Fed manufacturing index also dropped from 14 to 0 in September. Economists predicted that the measure would ease down to 12.

Despite this, the US Dollar advanced on rivals like the Pound and Euro as over half of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News continue to believe tapering will occur in December.

Additional ‘Greenback’ movement could occur before the close of the North American session as the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas, Esther George, expresses her view on the central bank’s shock decision to refrain from tapering at its September meeting.

According to London-based currency strategist Jane Foley, markets are waiting for ‘more Fed comments or payrolls data, more direction on the timing of the taper. Many people don’t have a strong view on that right now and they want to see what the next payrolls number will tell us before coming to a strong conclusion on the Dollar.’

US news to watch out for over the next few days includes durable goods orders, new home sales, MBA mortgage applications, GDP, initial jobless claims, pending home sales and the University of Michigan confidence index.

As it stands the US Dollar is trading in the region of 0.6254 pence, and 0.7419 Euros - Exchange rates correct at 16:35 GMT
As of Tuesday, 24th September 2013, the Pound Sterling currency rates mentioned within this news item were as follows:

GBP EUR exchange rate was 1.1877, GBP USD exchange rate was 1.6001,

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