USD strengthens on risk factors [Video]

Today's Highlights

• USD strengthens on risk factors

• Sterling fails to rally on upbeat retail sales

• Canadian inflation data awaited

Current Market Overview

The US Dollar has strengthened again after the attacks in Spain and either because or in spite of the rumours circulating that suggest Donald Trump won’t be President for much longer. Business leaders appeared to have abandoned the President after his ill-considered comments about the Charlottesville incident. The Dollar also shrugged off poorer than expected industrial and manufacturing production numbers. Those won’t have been missed by the Federal Reserve though and just add to the growing list of reasons not to raise the base rate just yet. This afternoon brings the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index and the forecasts for that are all over the place. So there is scope for some volatility before US traders head off into the weekend.
 
Sterling had a day of narrow trading after the UK Retail Sales data showed a surge in food sales but fears over the gap between wage growth and retail inflation are a concern for future retail activity. The absence of UK data today should leave the Pound wallowing around €1.09 and $1.28, unless a banker or politician get themselves on the telly.
 
In fact the only other major data today is Canadian Consumer Price Inflation. An uptick is forecast and that would benefit the Canadian Dollar, but CAD is susceptible to the effects of the US Dollar and the impact that commodity prices have on its export prospects. So there may be influences that shift the Loonie around, which are not widely reported.
 
And a Kansas City theme park is building a record breaking stomach churning roller coaster. Named Time Traveller, it will feature a 10-story vertical fall, a dive loop, a zero-gravity roll and a 95-foot-tall vertical loop. At the same time, the passengers (or victims, as I tend to think of them) will be spinning through 360 degrees. I have just one word for that…Nope.