Yesterday Housing data failed to impress, with the number of new building permits and new houses being built falling in February compared to the previous month. Housing Starts data, which measures the number of new single family properties being built, fell by 8.7% which is the largest fall in 8 months, and has been attributed to bad weather causing a slowdown in the construction sector.

Consumer Confidence figures were also released and showed a decline in confidence from 131.4 in February to 124.1 in March. This comes at the same time as a separate study from the Pew Research Center, which suggested that the majority of US citizens are predicting the US economy to weaken, and levels of national debt to continue to rise, by 2050. It is worth noting that the national debt to GDP ratio has been steadily rising since 2000, and was one of the pledges from US President Donald Trump in his election campaign to eliminate the nation’s debt, however so far he has failed to do so.

Further US data releases which could impact US dollar exchange rates for the remainder of this week include Trade Balance figures at 12.30pm today, showing the difference between the countries imports and exports. Tomorrow afternoon will see the release of Initial and Continuing Jobless Claims data, followed by Growth figures for the final quarter of 2018. Please feel free to get in touch if you wish to discuss the outcomes of these releases.

Exchange rates on this page are interbank rates and indicate where the market is trading to show the performance of a currency pair. They are not indicative of the rates which we offer. The information on this web site is provided free of charge for information purposes only. It does not constitute advice to any person on any matter. Foreign Currency Direct plc. ("FCD") makes every reasonable effort to ensure that this information is accurate and complete but assumes no responsibility for and gives no warranty with regard to the same.