On Tuesday, the dollar generally has a negative trend compared with the six major currencies as the markets keep cautious on the eve of the today’s publication of US private sector data on consumer confidence, as well as the results of the monthly policy meeting of the Federal Reserve, which is expected on Wednesday.
The traders focused their attention on the publication of the US index value of the property from the S&P/Case Schiller and also the report on US consumer confidence later during the session, to obtain further evidence about the recovery on the eve of the political decision of the FED on Wednesday.
The disappointing employment data, together with home sales data and industrial production have forced investors to reduce their expectations on the soon increase of FED’s interest rates, pressing the dollar down.
The USD index, which tracks the performance of the US currency against the basket of six major rivals, went down with 0.27%, getting to 96.63. The EUR/USD rose 0.34%, to 1.0927.
The Euro strengthened after the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, managed some changes in his team of negotiators with international lenders, prompting optimism so that an agreement can be reached in early May. The Euro trend is close to a three-week maximum as the investors renewed their hopes that Greece will receive new loans. The changes carried out by Tsipras are meant to put the Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, in the second plan. The director of strategy of the foreign exchange market NAB, Ray Atril, said in his declaration that: “the intransigence of Varoufakis is very upsetting for Brussels group of foreign creditors. The nomination of a more traditional negotiator, who is more familiar with the European bureaucracy, is encouraging and it gives hope that an agreement will be possible before the large payments deadline, which is in May”.
The UK Sterling Pound is also noting a growth. The pair GBP/USD gained 0.30%, getting to 1.52832 after the minimum of 1.5177 reached earlier, at the beginning of the session. The Sterling came under pressure after the UK Office for National Statistics reported that the country’s GDP expanded by 0.3% in the first three months of 2015, slowing from 0.6% in the last quarter of the previous year, which is the poorest rate of the increase from the fourth quarter in 2012.
The US Dollar stays steady against the Yen, the USD/JPY pair shows 118.98, and it rose against the Swiss Franc, USD/CHF gained 0.30%, showing now 0.9585. Other Dollar related currency pairs stay as follows: AUD/USD – 0.7926 (+0.87), NZD/USD – 0.7685 (+0.50%), USD/CAD – 1.2068 (-0.15%)