FR: US Dollar plunges against majors after key reports
The US dollar plunged against major currencies after the release of some economic data during New York trading on Thursday. The greenback dropped to new multi-month lows against the Swiss franc, euro and the British pound.
The U.S. Labor Department released a report today morning showing that producer prices fell by much more than economists had expected during the month, with food prices showing a substantial decrease in the month of June.
The Labor Department said that its producer price index fell by 0.5 percent in June following an unrevised 0.3 percent decrease in May. Economists had been expecting a much more modest decrease in prices of about 0.1 percent.
On an annual basis, the headline producer price index was up 2.8 percent in June compared to the same month a year ago, a notable slowdown compared to the 5.3 percent annual rate of growth reported for the previous month.
The Labor Department also reported that initial jobless claims came in at 429,000 for the week ended July 10th, down 29,000 from the previous week's revised total. Economists had generally expected a figure around 450,000.
Industrial production showed a modest increase in the month of June, according to a report released by the Federal Reserve today. The report showed that industrial production edged up by 0.1 percent in June after surging up by an unrevised 1.3 percent increase in May. The modest increase came as a surprise to economists, who had expected production to come in unchanged.
At the same time, the Federal Reserve said that capacity utilization came in at 74.1 in June, unchanged from the previous month. Economists had expected the capacity utilization rate to edge up to 74.2 percent.
Extending previous session downtrend, the greenback declined further against the euro and the Swiss franc in New York deals today. At about 11:25 am ET, the greenback slipped to new multi-month lows of 1.2918 against the euro and 1.0400 versus the franc, which may be compared to yesterday's closing values of 1.2743 and 1.0525, respectively. As of now, the greenback is worth 1.2871 against the euro and 1.0428 versus the franc.
Against its British counterpart, the dollar traded lower in today's morning deals and fell to more than a 2-month low of 1.5396 by about 10:05 am ET. Thereafter, the greenback reversed its direction against the pound and presently worth 1.5355. The pair closed yesterday's New York session at 1.5268.
The US currency also edged down against the Japanese yen in New York morning today. The greenback-yen pair that closed Wednesday's New York session at 88.4100, dropped to an 8-day low of 87.2300 as of 10:20 a ET. At present, the pair is wtrading near 87.47.