Apr 18 2014

Dollar Heads for Weekly Gain as Data Support Pace of Fed Taper 

Rate Range Projection by Bank

 Next week 101.70- 102.70

Next 3 months 100.00 - 105.00

 

U.S. Economy

 

The Philadelphia Fed’s factory index increased to 16.6 in April, the highest since September, data showed April 17. Initial jobless claims rose by 2,000 to 304,000 in the week ended April 12 from a revised 302,000 the prior period that was the lowest since September 2007, a Labor Department report showed on the same day. The index of U.S. leading indicators probably rose 0.7 percent in March, the most since November, according to the median estimate of economists in a Bloom berg News poll before the data are released on April 21.The Fed began tapering its monthly asset purchases in January, and economists predict the asset-purchase program will end in October.

 

The dollar posted weekly gains against the euro and the yen as improvements in economic data strengthened the case for the Federal Reserve to remove stimulus this year. The pound was near a four-year high before the Bank of England releases minutes on April 23 of this month’s meeting. The New Zeeland dollar recorded its biggest weekly decline since January before the nation’s central bank meets next week. The won posted its first five-day drop in a month. Currency volatility sank to an almost seven-year low.“The jobless claims and Philadelphia Fed reports were both good, and the dollar was bid on the back of that,” said Kazuo Shirai, a trader at Union Bank NA in Los Angeles. “If U.S. jobs numbers stay positive, the Fed will probably continue to taper at the current pace.”