Tuesday, 28 Jul 2009

Dollar Soars on Poor U.S. Consumer Confidence Figures

The Dollar has soared so far in today's trading, as a result of the publication of worse-than-forecast U.S. Consumer Confidence figures. The result was 46.6 versus a 49.1 forecast, and the previous result of 49.3. This was the second straight decline, and marked a surprise for many analysts, erasing much of yesterday's market optimism following the positive U.S. home sales data. Prior to this release, the Pound was hit due to pessimistic British data.

The EUR/USD cross is currently trading at 1.4128, a decline of over 110 pips since today's commencement of trading. Thus the USD yet again regained some of its safe-haven status as a consequence of the gloomy data. The GBP declined by 95 pips vs. the USD to 1.6395 thus far today. Thus the British currency was too affected by the poor results from the U.S. The Pound started to decline prior to the U.S. data publication, on poor British CBI Realized Sales figures.

Looking ahead to late night trading, the U.S. Dollar will be the most dominant currency, and the U.S. economy will be the biggest news breaker, as there are vital speeches by key figures. These include Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's speech from 20:45 GMT and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's speech regarding the U.S. economy at 22:00 GMT. Now is the chance for you forex traders to open big USD positions, as late-night trading is dominated by volatility.