Trump spoke to the Wall Street Journal in the early hours of Wednesday morning and once again attacked the Federal Reserve for its interest rate rises. It is odd that the President has repeated his attack (his fourth in recent times by our count), but perhaps he is trying to convince the central bank to resist hiking rates once more in December. Irrespective of what Trump said, the dollar climbed to a nine-week high as it rallied across the board. It is not exactly clear why that happened, but it appears that traders don’t believe that the Fed will be affected by Trump’s comments.
In sharp contrast with the eurozone, PMI data in the US came in above expectations in a sign that the American economy is still in a strong state. New home sales were also released and actually came in below expectations to post the lowest rate since December 2016. However, the economy is in such rude health that the reading won’t be too much of a concern.
September’s durable goods orders will be released later this afternoon, as well as initial jobless claims up to 20 October 2018. Employment in the US has been extremely strong in recent months, with record figures seemingly being achieved all the time, so it will be interesting to see if claims can fall even lower than last time around.
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