The greenback completed yesterday’s trading session with mixed results versus the major currencies. The USD fell against the EUR yesterday, pushing the oft-traded currency pair to 1.2866. The dollar experienced similar behavior against the CHF as the pair dropped from 116.70 to 115.80 by day’s end. The USD did see some bullishness as well as it gained over 150 points against the JPY and closed at 96.70.
The most influential economic data coming from the U.S. yesterday was the consumer confidence report. Consumer confidence hit a record low in February as Americans feared an already deep recession was likely to get even worse. The impact of the financial crisis over the last several months has clearly taken a toll on consumer confidence. In assessing current conditions, consumers rated the labor market and business conditions much less favorably. President Barack Obama is trying to mend the breach in confidence with a stimulus plan that he says will save or create more than 3 million jobs, cut taxes and boost infrastructure spending.
USD trading will be interesting today as a number of important economic data is expected to be released. Similar to yesterday, the news will start at 15:00 GMT with a series of economic indicators being released starting with Existing Home Sales and Crude Oil Inventories. Surprisingly, almost all of these releases are expected to be higher than their previous figures meaning the USD could show relatively high levels of bullishness today. Traders should stay close to the market as there is a strong chance to capitalize on the fluctuations which will likely follow these releases.
