US Dollar Still Under Pressure

Added: November 19, 2010

US Dollar struggles, but euro remains down for week. Ireland is focus.

During the Friday currency trading session, investors were still on edge about Ireland’s debt concerns and the recent movements of the Federal Reserve. The US dollar was still struggling, but the euro did not improve enough to overcome its losses during the early portion of the week.

US Dollar

The US dollar fell on Friday, due to numerous reasons. One of the factors affecting the trading was the Federal Reserve Chairman’s statements. Ben Bernanke stated that the US Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing program was necessary. The US Dollar Index moved the US dollar from 78.644 as of late in North American trading on Thursday to 78.474 as of the end of trading during the Friday session. The US dollar index showed the US dollar up 0.5 percent for the week. It improved 1.6 percent thus far for the month of November. It has moved positively by 0.8 percent for the year thus far. Nevertheless, it is down some ten percent off highs during this year.

Euro

The Euro was able to improve during the Friday session against the US dollar. This came as there continued to be talks about what would occur for Ireland, who had yet to take any type of deal to bailout its banks. The euro moved from US $1.3630 as of the end of trading on Thursday to US $1.3678 by the end of the Friday session. It had risen to as high as US $1.3731 during the session. The euro has fallen in value by 0.2 percent in this week. It fell 2.3 percent in the previous week as well. This puts it at 2 percent down for the month of November, while also positioning it down 4.5 percent for the year.

The European Union, Ireland officials and the International Monetary Fund were still working to find a solution for the country’s bailout, if it is willing to accept the help. By all indications, it seems that Ireland is willing to take the help, and that helped to spur on investors who were more eager to take on the risk of the euro as a result.

Australian Dollar

The Australian dollar was down against the US dollar during trading. It moved to 98.56 cents, a fall of 0.5 percent for the day. This comes after concerns about the Chinese economy. The Chinese bank officials raised the reserve requirement ration for banks by half of a percent on Friday.

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Bernanke on Defensive

Posted by Timothy Cain at Nov 29, 2010 04:38 AM

The US dollar is going to be under pressure for a while because the Federal Reserve is getting ready to do a second round of quantitative easing. Europe didn’t take to kindly to the plan either. The concern that the U.S. dollar will weaken and cause a flow of funds to emerging markets hasn’t made the U.S. any friends. It’s interesting that the U.S. has been berating China for currency intervention and yet what is quantitative easing? It’s just another form of market intervention by government. You can call it whatever you want, but that is exactly what it is. We’ll have to wait and see how much influence the second round of quantitative easing has but it was kind of fun watching Ben Bernanke squirm under the global criticism.