The euro dipped against the dollar today but managed to stay above the $0.88 level after the release of stronger-than-expected US National Association of Purchasing Managers data, dealers said.
Ms Sonia Helleman, currency strategist at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, said the bigger-than-expected rise of US NAPM was a positive surprise for the dollar.
The NAPM overall index rose to 43.1 in March from 41.9 in February against a projected rise of 42.0.
Ms Helleman believes the market will not read too much into that one set of numbers. "Everyone will be waiting for the employment data coming out Friday," she said.
She said that Friday's weak Chicago PMI combined with a weak NAPM and payroll numbers would have led the US Federal reserve to cut rates between meetings, perhaps as early as next week.
But the NAPM "was stronger-than-expected and we'll have to see what happens to the rest of the data this week. The market is looking for signals as to whether or not we are going to see an inter-meeting rate cut by the Fed." she added.
AFP
