The
Conference Board announced the U.S consumer confidence index on Tuesday.
Printing better than expected, the report pushed the U.S dollar index higher
but the overall impact on the forex market wasn’t too aggressive.
Tuesday’s
economic data highlighted the consumer confidence to have noted a better than
expected growth in the United States in January. Conference Board cited the optimism
of the labor market to have contributed to the upbeat data.
CB
Consumer Confidence Prints At 131.6 In January
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The
index was capped at 126.5 in December, following which, economists had expected
it to hike sharply to 128 in January. Noting an even higher 131.6 this month,
the index brought
good
news for the U.S economy.
The Conference Board’s senior director of economic indicators, Lynn Franco, commented on Tuesday’s report and highlighted that the U.S consumers have started to express optimism regarding their job prospects in the upcoming months that translated into better than expected figure for consumer confidence. With the improving labor market expected to keep the confidence higher in the short-term, consumers are likely to continue stimulating growth and protecting the U.S economy from losing its pace this year.
According
to the CB consumer confidence released earlier today, 49% of the U.S consumers branded
jobs as plentiful. The figure was capped at 46.5% in December. On the other
hand, only 11.6% of the U.S consumers said jobs were hard to get while a
slightly higher 13.6% had previously reported the same last month.
Response
In The Financial Markets
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The
economic data on Tuesday cast a considerable impact on the stock market with
Dow Jones Industrial Average last seen trading near the session high. The index
opened the day at around 28,594 on Tuesday and was later seen trading around
28,793.
The
U.S dollar index challenged the crucial psychological resistance at 98.0 after
the release of the CB consumer confidence index earlier today. The index recorded
a daily low of 97.73 on Tuesday. Following the
release
of economic data, it was reported trading around 97.96. Much of the gain,
however, was unsustainable as the U.S dollar index fell back to 97.87 later in
the day.
The
response in the forex market wasn’t too remarkable either. The report failed to
fuel more than 15 pips of movement in EUR/USD that dropped from around 1.1010
to around 1.0995.
