USD Strengthens Amid Busy Earnings Period

• Forex Majors Remain Pressured by Stronger Dollar
• Consumer Confidence Data Set to Improve
• Impressive Earnings Abound on Wall Street

The Dollar has seen its strength continue into this week as it holds up well against other major currencies in the forex market. The US Dollar Index which tracks the currency against a basket of others has peaked above 91.2 in the last week. Markets are still trading very positively as well with key indices on Wall Street still around their all-time highs. An expected boost to consumer confidence numbers will no doubt continue this positive sentiment through today.

Majors Pressured but Resilient

Both the British Pound and Euro are continuing to feel the heat from a stronger US Dollar this week. With that said, both have managed to hold firm at their current levels and the Euro, in particular, has also displayed some strength of its own which those forex trading the pair will have found notably absent of late.

The common currency is trading just under 1.21 though it has picked up from a low earlier in the day and is no doubt benefiting from continued progress in the bloc with COVID-19 vaccines and news that US tourism is set to be welcomed by summer. Sterling too has battled off domestic rumors surrounding PM Boris Johnson and controversial comments which he denies having made, to trade just below 1.40.

Consumer Confidence Recovery Continues

Soaring job growth and a drop off in the number of new unemployment claims have had a large impact on US consumer confidence. Figures released today look set to support that with analysts expecting a rise in the number to 113.00 for April providing further proof that the economy is coming back strongly as the country continues to reopen.

Sky-high retail sales that saw a 9.8% boost in the prior month albeit backed by stimulus check spending can be seen as another contributing factor to data that has remained depressed for a long period of time throughout lockdown. The same number is just 91.3 in February and far exceeding the target in recent months shows just the pace that consumers are getting back their faith in the economy. These numbers may also be key to forex brokers seeing a continued push from the strengthening Dollar.

More Highs on Big Earnings Day

Yesterday brought more positive numbers on Wall Street with the NASDAQ closing well ahead and all of the indices at or close to record high numbers. Today also brings in a slew of big-name earning data during a quarter where most are managing to smash the estimates on both ends.

This is not always favorable to the stock price though and this can be seen today with Tesla dropping more than 4% at the time of writing despite record revenues and a beat on expectations. Other big names to report after closing yesterday included Microsoft and AMD with tech giants Apple and Facebook to report after the close of the market today.