The US dollar was strong during the Monday’s session despite some worse-than-expected reports released from the United States. The greenback trimmed its gains but was trading above the opening level.
The dollar continues to receive support from the outlook for a December interest rate lift-off from the Federal Reserve. The CME FedWatch shows a 74 percent probability of the rate hike next month. San Francisco Fed President John Williams reinforced such outlook, saying over the weekend:
Assuming that we continue to get good data on the economy, continue to get signs that we are moving closer to achieving our goals and gaining confidence getting back to 2-percent inflation… If that continues to happen there’s a strong case to be made in December to raise rates.
Monday’s data was a bit disappointing with the decline of existing home sales by 3.4 percent last month and the drop of the Markit manufacturing index to the lowest since October 2013. Still, the indicators did not look bad enough to derail the Fed from its plan regarding monetary policy.
EUR/USD was down from 1.0639 to 1.0625 as of 19:21 GMT today after reaching 1.0592 intraday — the lowest level since April 15. GBP/USD slid from 1.5174 to 1.5123. USD/JPY near the opening rate of 122.82 after rallying to 123.25 earlier.
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