Positive Jobless Claims Report in the US Lowered Demand for Gold

Lebanese Forex Market:

Demand for the Dollar on the Lebanese forex market increased over the past week as the value of the Lebanese pound against the dollar increased from a mid-price of $/LP 1,513.75 within the range of $/LP 1,513.5 -1,514 to a mid-price of $/LP 1,514 within the range of $/LP 1,513.75 -1,514.25.

Foreign assets (excluding gold) of the Central Bank slightly slid by 0.91% since the beginning of the year to $36.75B by July 2016. The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits fell from 64.88% in December 2015 to 64.84% in June 2016.

By Friday 12th  of August, 2016, 1:00 pm Beirut time, the euro appreciated against the dollar-pegged LP as the exchange rate rose by 0.03%, over the last week, going from €/LP 1,680.86 to €/LP 1,681.31. As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) it fell by 0.11% to reach 166.43 points.  

International Forex Market:

The dollar was weak against the euro for the second week running as bets for an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve are still low. More positive US economic data will be needed to boost the euro/dollar exchange rate which rose by 0.03% over the past week to €/$ 1.1153.

Commodities:

Positive US economic data failed to boost the performance of the dollar against the euro this week but managed to lower demand for gold. Over the week, gold saw its price fall from $1,362/ounce to $1,337/ounce this Friday as the latest jobless claims report (for the week ending August 6th), showed that jobless claims slipped to 266,000, down from the previous week’s level of 267,000.

 

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