Dollar rises after strong US services, factory data

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Europe

After an underwhelming October jobs report, the dollar beat estimates by rising in the wake of US factory orders and services sector data that was better than estimates.

The euro turned negative against the dollar, falling to its lowest level since Monday after the US factory orders and ISM non-manufacturing PMI data, while the dollar turned positive against the Japanese yen, erasing earlier losses and nearing its highest since mid-July.

The Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index rose to its highest level since 2005. New orders for US-made goods rose for the second straight month in September and orders for core capital goods surpassed expectations.

The dollar index .DXY, which measures the currency against six rival currencies, rose to its highest since October 27, closing in on a nearly four-month peak.

The strong data backed a slate of releases on US growth and inflation from earlier in the week that pointed to a strong economy and further interest rate increases from the Federal Reserve.

“When we look at the big picture, we’re looking at a Fed that’s likely to hike in December and could very well have three hikes up its sleeve for 2018 and that is certainly a more hawkish outlook than we’re expecting from most other major central banks,” said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange in Washington.

The dollar had earlier fallen to its lows of the day after the release of October US non-farm payrolls, which came in below expectations.

The jobs report showed its largest gain since July 2016, but missed economists’ expectations for an increase of 310,000 jobs, following a particularly weak reading in September.

The dollar index posted its third straight weekly increase, following its largest weekly percentage gain of the year last week. October was the dollar’s best monthly performance since February.

Digital currency bitcoin took another leap higher, rocketing above 7,000 US dollars for the first time after a more than tenfold increase in value over the past year.

Physical silver Bitcoin coin/VCG Photo‍

It hit as high as 7,500 US dollars on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange on Friday.

“People should not be surprised by this move. They should try to understand it before dismissing it,” said Rahul Sood, CEO of Unikrn, a US sports betting digital platform. “The fact is there is a finite amount of Bitcoin in the world... It’s just a much better trading commodity than paper gold – and more convenient than fiat currency.”

Source(s): Reuters