The dollar is gaining ground against its major rivals Wednesday afternoon, continuing a trend that began at the end of the previous trading week. With little news to drive the direction of trading during this holiday shortened week, investors appear to be taking cues from recent comments from Fed officials.
The new president of the Philadelphia Fed, Patrick Harker, told Tuesday that the Fed should consider another hike in April, as oil prices had “seemingly bottomed out or stabilized”, enabling the Fed to reach the 2 percent inflation goal.
Speaking at the City Club of Chicago, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans sounded optimistic about the future of the U.S. economy, and said he expects two rate hikes in the this year.
These comments echoed those made by San Francisco Fed President John Williams and Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart recently, who suggested rate increases might be on the way sooner rather than later.
New home sales in the U.S. rebounded in February after seeing a steep drop in the previous month, the Commerce Department revealed in a report on Wednesday. The report said new home sales rose 2.0 percent to an annual rate of 512,000 in February after tumbling 7.0 percent to a revised rate of 502,000 in January.
Economists had expected new home sales to climb 3.2 percent to a rate of 510,000 from the 494,000 originally reported for the previous month.
Investors can look forward to the release of weekly jobless claims data and durable goods orders Thursday morning. GDP data for the first quarter is slated to be released Friday, despite the Good Friday holiday.
The dollar has climbed to a 1-week high of $1.1165 against the Euro Wednesday afternoon, from around $1.1220 this morning.
The buck has also broken out to a 1-week high of $1.4090 against the pound sterling, from around $1.4225 this morning.
The greenback reached a 4-session high of Y112.904 against the Japanese Yen this afternoon, but has since eased back to around Y112.685.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com