USD Overview (15 February 2021)

Last Friday, USD strengthened against most major currencies except GBP, AUD and CAD.

During a webinar last Thursday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell expressed dovishness in the U.S. job market. Although unemployment rate has declined back to around 6%, Powell highlighted that the true unemployment rate is closer to 10% if there were no misclassification errors that understated the deterioration in the labor market.

The CPI m/m data released last Wednesday indicated continued increase in headline inflation mainly due to rise in gasoline prices while core inflation remained unchanged.

• CPI m/m (Actual: 0.3%, Forecast: 0.3%, Previous: 0.4%)
  
• Core CPI m/m (Actual: 0.0%, Forecast: 0.2%, Previous: 0.1%)
  

The Preliminary UoM Consumer Sentiment data (Actual: 76.2, Forecast: 80.8, Previous: 79.0 revised from 79.2) released last Friday indicated a decline in consumers’ view of the U.S. economy in February.

U.S. banks will be closed today in observance of Presidents’ Day. Expect lower trading volatility and volume.