Morning Forex Fundamental: USD

Morning Forex Fundamental: USD

'What he said is we need to have something sufficient to stop QE' - Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities

Signs of recovery in the world’s largest economy have been underlined with latest data, pointing at the improvement in labour and property markets. The Labor Department said on Thursday that the number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits rose by 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 336,000 in a week ended March 16. That was slightly below economists' forecast of 340,000 new claims. The less volatile four-week moving average reached the lowest level since February 2008 and stood at 339,750.

Moreover, figures provided by the Federal Housing Finance Agency showed that the U.S. house prices rose 6.5% in the year through January, posting the biggest gain since 2006. On a seasonally adjusted basis, prices added 0.6% from December. Home prices are climbing as low borrowing costs and improving employment bolster demand and the inventory of properties for sale shrinks.

'What he said is we need to have something sufficient to stop QE,' Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities said. Stanley said while Bernanke acknowledged improvements in employment, 'he said we want to see this for a couple of months in a row before we get too confident about it. That tells me we are on auto pilot for at least three months and we can revisit it from there.'