Another busy week is coming up for the US Dollar over the next few days. Durable Goods figures were released today which were reported better than expected, however with the exclusion of transportation the results were worse than expected. There has been a strong run of good data for the US and in my opinion this is likely to continue this week, considering the momentum already a small amount of weak data is unlikely to change much. Tomorrow afternoon there we will see Consumer Confidence and GDP data, with the Federal Reserve meeting coming up in the next few weeks strong data here could convince the market of a interest rate hike.

Speeches from Donald Trump and Janet Yellen this week

Janet Yellen and Donald Trump will both speak this week, starting with the President on Wednesday. Donald Trump will deliver a speech to congress and could well lay out some more of his plans and thoughts for the near future. There is reported to have been major work on new business policies with regards to imports, legislation and taxes. Mr Trump may finally take this opportunity to share his master plan.

Possibly the more eagerly anticipated speech is Janet Yellen’s which is due later in the week. A US interest rate hike has now been on the cards since the hike in December with many expecting it to come next month. On the 15th of March the Federal Open Market Committee will meet once again and provide a decision on the US interest rate. Janet Yellen has recently become hawkish about future hikes with several members of the committee pointing to multiple rate hikes this year.

If there was to be a flurry of hikes the US Dollar would certainly strengthen further and I don’t think it would be surprising the see the rate dip below the 1.20 mark once again.