In June the FED will be meeting again to decide on whether or not to raise interest rates again after their last meeting in December. The Dollar strengthened hugely off the hints that this first interest rate rise would be followed by another four in 2016. Yet we are almost half-way through the year and there have been none.
Lots of stumbling blocks have come up; Chinese instability, a global slowdown, and most recently the potential for a Brexit. The other feature on the horizon after June will be the US election in November for the FED to deploy as a feature of uncertainty to avoid another hike.
As such, commentators are touting June as the last real chance for a hike this year. The FED have also made positive noises. What we’ve heard is that as long as economic performance figures come in as expected, there will be a hike next month. Hence why even a look at consumption figures and consumer confidence figures today will have an exaggerated effect on Dollar buying rates.
Consumer confidence figures have been high for the US for quite some time, and at midday today when the exact results are released, this could be enough to tip recent trends on buying Dollars back towards the 1.45 mark.