Currencies: further weakening of the dollar (-0.1%), Swiss franc +0.5% – 2024-02-07
The dollar eroded by -0.1% and fell back – very slightly – below its previous resistance level: the $-Index retreated to 104.10.
Spreads remained modest on most currency pairs (the euro rallied by 0.15% to $1.0770, the pound regained 0.25% and the most dynamic currency was the Swiss franc with +0.5% to 0.8735.
The day’s US figures had little impact on exchange rates: the US trade deficit widened slightly to $62.2 billion in December 2023, compared with the previous month’s $61.9 billion (which was revised from an initial estimate of $63.2 billion), according to the Commerce Department.
This 0.5% month-on-month increase in the deficit reflects a roughly parallel rise in US imports of goods and services, up 1.3% to $320.4 billion, and exports, up 1.5% to $258.2 billion.
In the same vein, France posted a trade deficit of E100 bn by the end of 2023, up E40 bn on 2019 (but a lesser evil after E163 bn in 2022).
NB: France’s market share in world trade has fallen from 5.4% to 2.7% in 20 years.
Finally, German industrial production fell much more sharply than expected in December (-1.6%), according to official statistics published on Wednesday, confirming the bad patch currently experienced by Europe’s leading economy: this is its sixth consecutive month of decline… but no impact on the Euro this Wednesday.
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