The dollar was lodged near a three year low on Friday amid fears of a possible U.S. government shutdown.In addition to global central banks looking to tighten their monetary policies following theFederal Reserve Bank’s example and therefore causing a decline in demand for the US currency.The dollar index lost 2% of its value since the start of 2018 to reach its lowest level since December 2014 at 90.10.
Retail sales fell by 1.5% in December. One of the factors that led to a drop in sales compared to last monthis November being an unusually strong month because of Black Friday spending. The previous reading was revised negatively from 1.1% to 1.0%.
At the same time, IEA kept its forecast on the growth of oil demand in 2018 at 1.3 million barrels per day and raised its non-OPEC supply growth estimate by 0.2 million barrels to 1.7 million barrels per day.It noted that supply growth is backed by rapid US growth and gains in Canada and Brazil.
Markets are looking for data on manufacturing sales in Canada in November to resume rising 1.9% month on month, while US consumer confidence is expected to improve to 97.0 points in January.
