FXCM Israel: The shekel-dollar exchange rate has moved above the critical NIS 3.80/$ level after yesterday's US Fed comments.
The shekel is weakening this morning in inter-bank trading against the dollar and strengthening against the euro. The shekel-dollar rate is up 0.62% to NIS 3.807/$ and the shekel-euro rate is down 0.45% to NIS 4.134/€.
Yesterday, the Bank of Israel set the shekel dollar representative rate up 0.292% from Monday's rate at NIS 3.783/$, and the representative shekel-euro rate was set up 0.433% at NIS 4.152/€.
FXCM Israel research department said this morning, "The shekel-dollar exchange rate has moved up above the critical NIS 3.80/$ level after yesterday's comments by the US Fed chief in Atlanta Denis Lockhart who said that September would be appropriate time to life the interest rate. Lockhart's statement is in line with those of other senior Fed officials including Fed chair Janet Yellen that suggest that the Fed will toughen its monetary policies in September. The rise in the dollar yesterday also stems from the fact that Lockhart's comments follow a string of disappointing US macroeconomic figures last week including employment and manufacturing. It appears that despite creaks in the US economy, seen from time to time in macroeconomic data, the Fed still feels safe in raising the interest rate in the current economic conditions. Breaking above NIS 3.80/$ could pave the way towards NIS 3.82/$.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 5, 2015
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