Evergreen buck jumps notwithstanding dismal US economic data

On Friday, the evergreen buck flirted with session peaks versus a group of key currencies, neglecting generally dismal American data, which pointed to signs of an economic deceleration.

Assessing the US dollar’s purchasing power versus its main peers the USD index managed to edge up by up to 0.35% hitting 96.37, which is below session maximums of 96.44.

The evergreen buck was still resilient in the wake of reports on inflation, manufacturing, and consumption, which did little to quash the narrative of a deceleration American economy.

The personal consumption expenditures price index, which is the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, rallied by up to 1.9% excluding energy and food for the 12 months through December, which is in line with experts’ estimate.

February’s ISM manufacturing data disclosed a downtick to 54.2, confounding hopes for 55.5. An outcome above 50 in the ISM index points to an expansion in manufacturing that amounts to nearly 12% of the American economy.

Consumer spending, accounting for more than two-thirds of American economic activity, headed south by 0.5% in December.

The dive in personal spending actually represented the greatest dive since 2009.

The dismal data showed up several days after Fed Chair Jerome Powell praised the strength of the American economy, although he flagged some headwinds to surge, such as a weaker backdrop for the world’s economy.

The evergreen buck was also backed by a dive in the UK currency because investors took profits in the latter following steep profits during the week against the backdrop of soaring hopes that Great Britain will seek to postpone Brexit.

The currency pair GBP/USD went down by 0.40% reaching $1.3208. As for EUR/USD, it was intact sticking with $1.1370.

The currency pair UD/JPY rallied by 0.53% reaching Y111.97.