SMU Currency Analysis: Dollar Shows Some Weakness

In the last month, the U.S. dollar has weakened against seven of the 16 currencies that Steel Market Update tracks. This was close to the performance we reported last month, but a dramatic change from the period May through August when only a few of the 16 appreciated against the dollar (just one in May, two in June, three in July and two in August.) Please see the end of this report for an explanation of data sources.

The Broad Index value of the U.S. dollar is reported several days in arrears by the Federal Reserve; the latest value published was for Oct. 5. Figure 1 shows the index value since January 2011. The dollar had a recent peak of 128.96 on Jan. 3, 2017, which was the highest value in almost 15 years; the recent low point was Feb. 1, 2018, at 115.21. On Oct. 7, the dollar had recovered to 126.57.