Dollar Exchange Rate Today - Pound Sterling and Euro to USD Exchange Levels Higher

June 19, 2014 - Written by John Cameron

STORY LINK Dollar Exchange Rate Today - Pound Sterling and Euro to USD Exchange Levels Higher

Dollar exchange rate today - The Pound Dollar exchange rate (GBP/USD) once again breached the 1.7000 threshold during late trading yesterday. The move was driven by Dollar-weakness following the announcement from the US Federal Reserve that it was trimming its forecast for long term economic growth.

The USD went on to take a beating as markets sold the currency, losing over 0.26 per cent against the Sterling and 0.13 per cent against the Euro (EUR).

On Friday, we find the US currency recovering some losses against the majors: the Pound to Dollar exchange rate is steady on the day at 1.70367. The Euro Dollar exchange rate has recovered soem losses, up 0.11pct at 1.35953.

The US central bank forecasts a band which it expects future GDP expansion to fall into and yesterday’s announcement saw it reduce this from its previous target of 2.2 – 2.3% down to 2.1 – 2.3%. As recently as January 2010, the Fed’s counterpart growth prediction stood at 2.5 – 2.8%.

Sterling forecasts could see the USD rate higher

Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen heaped further pressure on the down-at-heel Buck during her post-announcement press conference, stating that she expected her Bank to keep its key interest rate at an ultra-low level for a ‘considerable time’ after it completes its Quantitative Easing programme.

Further upside now appears likely for the Pound US Dollar exchange rate, with the next key level heading higher coming at 1.7040 GBP/USD.

However, it wasn’t all bad news for the Greenback yesterday. Yellen did note during her questions and answers session that, ‘economic activity is rebounding in the current quarter and will continue to expand at a moderate pace thereafter’.

Yellen’s positive assessment of the future prospects for the world’s largest economy was backed up by Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, who observed in the wake of Yellen’s words that, ‘we’ve seen quite the decent rebound in the second quarter, but more importantly, the momentum is building for the second half.’

Eyes on Jobless Claims data today

The main event today, as far as Dollar-watchers are concerned, comes in the form of this afternoon’s weekly domestic labour market numbers.

A slight decrease in the Continuing Claims element of the data is expected, while the level of Initial Jobless Claims is also expected to be lower than the week before.

The US Dollar has recovered some losses on Friday 20th June (data at 13:00 GMT) as can be seen below:

The US Dollar to Australian Dollar exchange rate is trading up +0% at 1.06410 USD/AUD.
The US Dollar to Canadian Dollar exchange rate is trading up +0% at 1.08185 USD/CAD.
The US Dollar to Swiss Franc exchange rate is trading up +0.13% at 0.89518 USD/CHF.
The US Dollar to Euro exchange rate is trading up +0.11% at 0.73555 USD/EUR.
The US Dollar to Pound Sterling exchange rate is trading up +0.01% at 0.58697 USD/GBP.
The US Dollar to Hong Kong Dollar exchange rate is trading up +0.01% at 7.75106 USD/HKD.
The US Dollar to Indian Rupee exchange rate is trading value +0% at 61.20500 USD/INR.
The US Dollar to New Zealand Dollar exchange rate is trading up +0.14% at 1.14990 USD/NZD.
The US Dollar to Russian Rouble exchange rate is trading value +0% at 36.56500 USD/RUB.
The US Dollar to Thai Baht exchange rate is trading value +0% at 32.27000 USD/THB.
The US Dollar to Turkish Lira exchange rate is trading down -0.01% at 2.14192 USD/TRY.
The US Dollar to South African Rand exchange rate is trading down -0.42% at 10.70833 USD/ZAR.

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