After three days of consecutive losses for the US Dollar, the greenback has finally regained positive momentum versus the Euro as well as for the US Dollar Index. Last week, it was all about profit-taking on a portion of the gains recently made by the greenback. Albeit moderate, in European trading today, the Dollar is getting a small boost despite the latest rhetoric from the European Central Bank. The latest ECB discussions have sparked some consideration, albeit without widespread support, that an interest rate hike might possibly occur even before the central bank begins to tamp down on Quantitative Easing.
As reported at 9:38 am (GMT) in London, the EUR/USD was trading flat at $1.067. The EUR/GBP was lower at 0.8737 Pence, down 0.44%; the pair had earlier hit a peak of 0.8787 Pence while it is now just off them session trough.
Upbeat NFP Increases Rate Hike Expectations
Friday’s NFP figures are helping to provide additional support for the Dollar with 235,000 private sector jobs reported in February against expectations of a fall to 190,000; January’s figures were also revised upwards. That news has helped to cement expectations of further rate hikes from the Federal Reserve later this year. Analysts say that the fundamentals still support the greenback which helped to limit the Dollar’ sell off. The US Dollar Index, which measures the relative value of the dollar versus major trading rivals, was trading at 101.290 .DXY, a gain of 0.04%.