- Ryan Sweet, senior economist at Moody's Analytics Inc.
Janet Yellen's announcement of the upcoming rate hike and terrible fundamental data from Europe, all were suggesting the rally in EUR/USD that started in July is finally running out of steam. The world's largest economy is on the path of recovery, at least policymakers say so.
The latest bunch of data from the United States, however, is pointing the economy is still fragile, as both unemployment claims and trade balance surprised markets to the downside. A weekly report from the Labor Department unveiled the number of initial jobless claims advanced to 326,000 last week following a revised 310,000 a week earlier. The figure fell short of market's expectations for a 319,000. The less-volatile four-week moving average also climbed, while the number of continuing jobless claims moved higher as well. Despite being highly frequent, the report provides a strong market impact, as it is a first sneak peak into the economic recovery of the United States.
Also Thursday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said American trade gap widened significantly in February, as exports of industrial supplies plunged enough to outweigh the lowest crude imports in more than three years. The trade deficit stood at $42.3, the largest in five months.
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