Although US markets were closed for President’s Day on Monday, the ‘Greenback’ registered a modest gain against the Singapore Dollar, advancing from a low of 1.3533 to a high of 1.3576.
This week the Singapore Dollar could experience volatility following the publication of highly influential domestic data.
Last week the USD/SGD currency pair declined from a peak of 1.3634 to bottom out at 1.3533 as the US Dollar came under pressure as a result of disappointing US ecostats.
While the US Federal Reserve is still expected to be the first major central bank to increase interest rates this year, demand for the US Dollar eased after US retail sales, initial jobless claims and confidence data fell short of forecasts.
Retail sales were shown to have dropped by -0.8% on the month in December rather than dipping the -0.4% anticipated. Meanwhile, the number of people applying for first time unemployment benefits rose from 279,000 to 304,000 in the week ending February 7
th
.
The US Dollar remained fairly resilient following these data releases, but on Friday the US University of Michigan Confidence index dropped from an 11-year high of 98.1 to hit 93.6, and the ‘Greenback’ softened accordingly.
That being said, expectations that this week’s minutes from the latest Federal Open Market Committee meeting will hint at future rate hikes ensured that the US Dollar didn’t stay down for long.
Over the next few days data releases from both Singapore and the US could trigger US Dollar to Singapore Dollar (USD/SGD) exchange rate movement.
Tomorrow Singapore is set to publish its final fourth quarter growth data.
The rate of growth in the nation is believed to have slowed from 3.1% in the third quarter to 1.6% in the final three months of 2014 on a quarter-on-quarter basis.
Year-on-year fourth quarter growth has been estimated to print at 1.5%, down from the previous figure of 2.8%.
Singapore’s trade balance stats for January are also due for publication, with the nation’s trade surplus forecast to have widened to 5499.3 million Singapore Dollars from 4460 million Singapore Dollars.
The FOMC minutes are scheduled for release on Wednesday at 19:00 GMT and could inspire bullishness in the US Dollar if they paint the Fed in a hawkish light.
Other US reports to be aware of include the nation’s Housing Starts and Building Permits figures, Industrial/Manufacturing Production numbers and Markit’s US Manufacturing PMI.
During the European session the US Dollar to Singapore Dollar (USD/SGD) exchange rate was trading in the region of 1.3566.