Market Data
February 18, 2019
SMU Currency Analysis: U.S. Dollar Weakens in the Last Three Months
Written by Peter Wright
The following statement was extracted from the Federal Reserve website: “Effective on Feb. 4, 2019, the Federal Reserve Board staff has made major changes to the methodology used to construct the trade-weighted dollar indexes in the H.10, G.5, and G.5A releases. These changes affect the calculation of index weights and country composition. The new dollar indexes go back to (and are indexed to) January 2006. For more information, see Revisions to the Federal Reserve Dollar Indexes and Technical Q&As.”
In the last three months, the dollar weakened against 14 of the 16 currencies that Steel Market Update tracks. Since last July, when the dollar strengthened against all 16, there has been a progressive weakening. At the one-month level, the dollar broke even, strengthening against eight and weakening against the other eight. At the seven-day level, the dollar strengthened against 14 of the 16. This is an illustration of currency market volatility. For that reason, we don’t pay much attention to seven-day changes. Please see the end of this report for an explanation of data sources.

