The euro had a mixed week against the dollar and ended up pretty much where it began the week. It dipped below the €1.15 mark on Wednesday before two consecutive days of slight gains pushed it back safely above. For now, anyway. If 2017 was the euro’s year, then 2018 has been the dollar’s so far and with positive economic data continuing to come through from the US, this looks set to continue.
The only economic data release of note on Friday was the factory orders figures from Germany in August. The US posted its fastest rise for almost a year on Thursday and Germany’s impressed too. Economists had expected a 0.5% increase, but the figure actually came in at 2% which is the first increase for three months. It was mainly owing to a 5.8% surge in foreign demand.
It is a very quiet start to the week, but we will see the industrial production figures from Germany for August. Last time around, production shrank by 1.1%, but economists are predicting growth of 0.4% this time around. It will be interesting to see whether the experts are wide of the mark.
