The Head of the US Federal Reserve Janet Yellen yesterday delivered a speech suggesting the US labour market was improving however there was still room for more. She suggested that there were still pockets of high unemployment across the US that needed to be resolved.
Yellen didn’t use the speech in Washington to discuss Monetary Policy at all. The main talk across the US is when the next interest rate will occur not if. There has already been one so far this year and there is expected to be at least two more this year. The US Dollar has fallen away from the 30-year highs in the last few weeks and this could be due to some of the troubles faced by Trump. The new president was previously very confident of getting a lot of new plans pushed through however he seems to be having a little more difficulty than previously expected.
US GDP Figures released tomorrow
Tomorrow will see the release of the Gross Domestic Product figures for Q4. This is likely to show an improvement as the price of oil at the end of 2016 was on the way up. Strong data from the US economy will only increase the chances of an interest rate decision coming sooner. There will also be speeches from 2 members of the Federal Open Market Committee who vote on the interest rate decisions.
Friday will also bring a large amount of data which could have an effect on the market. Personal consumption figures and purchasing managers index readings if positive could support even more good data over the last few days.