Morning Note: Euro Can’t Beat Down the Dollar
The Fast Money traders were watching the spike in the euro this morning after European Central Bank President Claude Trichet hinted that the bank could raise benchmark inter-bank lending rates as soon as April.
“The focus is on the macro this morning,” said EmergingMoney.com’s Tim Seymour. Trichet “said we will hike next month, no not really… There are a lot of macro issues to talk about.”
Many investors were surprised by Trichet’s timeline, having expected the ECB President to hint that rates would rise by the fall – not this spring. The Euro was up sharply against a basket of currencies Thursday morning, including the dollar.
The dollar was not plummeting on the Euro’s strength, however.
Better-than-expected initial jobless claims data Thursday morning was supporting the dollar. Initial jobless claims dropped to a 2 ½ year low on Thursday, falling 20,000 to 368,000.
The data followed a strong ADP report showing that private employers added 217,000 jobs and boded well for the February jobs data due out Friday.
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