As the Israeli market reopens following the Sukkot holiday, the shekel has strengthened against the major currencies this morning. The shekel-dollar exchange rate is currently down 1.31% in comparison with the representative rate set before the holiday, on October 2, at NIS 3.8717/$, and the shekel-euro rate is down 0.94%, at NIS 4.34/€.
Asian bourses are rising today for the fifth consecutive day, following strong rises on Wall Street yesterday. Investors appear to be assuming that the monetary policy of central banks around the world will continue to be expansionary, given the latest data indicating economic slowdown.
In addition to the weak jobs figures released in the US on Friday, yesterday the September reading of the Non-Manufacturing Business Activity Index of the US Institute for Supply Management showed a slowdown in activity. The index fell to 56.9%, compared with 59% in August. Meanwhile, a survey of currency traders shows that whereas last month they saw a 58% chance that the US Federal Reserve would cut it interest rate in December, this month the estimated probability has declined to 35%. Former Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke said in an interview with CNBC yesterday that the Federal Reserve should not be raising interest rates yet.
Matach24 CEO David Masika said today, "After September saw turmoil on the markets because of the slowdown in China, and the US dollar rose, the dollar can now be seen to be correcting downwards, and the falls are really inevitable. Although it could be a very bullish correction, in the medium to long term there are several very aggressive global factors that will put pressure on the dollar.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 6, 2015
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2015