The shekel is strengthening against the dollar but weakening against the euro in morning inter-bank trading today. The shekel dollar exchange rate fell 0.35% compared with yesterday's representative rate to NIS 3.728/$, and the shekel euro exchange rate rose 0.32% to 5.06/€.
The bipartisan Congressional super committee yesterday admitted failure in its attempt to reach a deal on cutting the US deficit by $1.2 trillion, mainly because of an impasse on tax hikes, which will trigger automatic spending cuts, but Moody's and S&P said that they would not lower US ratings. On August 5 this year, S&P stripped the US of its top AAA rating for the first time in history, which set off a serious wave of declines in share and bond prices.
Prico Group CEO Yossi Frieman said, "A weakened euro will bring about a weakening in the raw materials market, as the dollar strengthens worldwide, and as concern over a global recession grows. In addition, breaking the $94 per barrel of oil threshold will provide the impetus to return to a level of $75-80 per barrel."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 22, 2011
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