Importers sweep the week. Given the geopolitical problems in Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Israel, Ukraine, and Russia, investors are moving into dollars as a safe haven. This increases the global value of a dollar, giving an advantage to importers. With economic numbers from Europe looking terrible, pressure is on the European Central Bank to act. Markets are expecting a run of quantitative easing. I think it would be better to skip banks all together, print money, and give it to people to boost demand and move away from deflation.
Other US economic data for this week is here.
Who won the battle last week, between the USD and five currencies? The perspective is strictly from America, so if against the Aussie Dollar, United States importers won, that also means Australian exporters won as well. I am changing the sign convention: negative percentage changes mean that exporters have the advantage while positive numbers show the advantage for importers.
| Currency | Week Ending 8-22-14 | Weeks in a Row | Weekly Change | YTD Change |
| Australian Dollar (AUD) | Importers Win! | 0 | 0.1% | -4.62% |
| Canadian Dollar (CAD) | Importers Win! | 0 | 0.3% | 2.76% |
| Euro (EUR) | Importers Win! | 0 | 0.6% | 3.54% |
| British Pound Sterling (GBP) | Importers Win! | 6 | 0.6% | 0.01% |
| Japanese Yen (JPY) | Importers Win! | 1 | 1.3% | -1.40% |
Thanks,
Damon
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