The US dollar managed to regain positions paired with the euro and the British pound after the publication of a number of statistics on the US economy on Wednesday afternoon, January 10.

Speeches of representatives of the Fed, which continue throughout the week, also positively affected the buyers of the US dollar.

According to the report of the US Department of Commerce, wholesale companies in the United States replenished their stocks at a faster rate. Thus, inventories in wholesale trade in November 2017 increased by 0.8% compared with the previous month after the reduction in inventories in October. Economists had expected that stocks in November would grow by 0.7%. Sales in November rose by 1.5% compared to the previous month.

Fed representative Robert Kaplan said yesterday that he expects at least three rate increases this year, but added that the Fed still has some time to take such a decision. Kaplan also drew attention to the US labor market, which, after a period of full employment, usually goes into a phase of overheating, which can affect the plans of the Federal Reserve System, which will not act on the lead and will not rush to tighten monetary policy.

Yesterday, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Charles Evans also spoke, who said that he would prefer to postpone the next increase in interest rates of the Federal Reserve until the summer. In his opinion, it is necessary to closely monitor the dynamics of inflation, since there is clearly no acceleration of its growth. According to Evans, the middle of the year will be the right time to think again about raising short-term interest rates.

Judging by the statements made by representatives of the Fed this week, one can draw a definite conclusion that many are set for a more restrained increase in interest rates and it is unlikely that with the current inflationary dynamics, it will be possible to seriously expect that the Fed will go on tightening credit policy already in 1st quarter of this year.

Today, there are data on the producer price index in the US, which will be a definite indicator for investors.

The data on retail sales in Australia supported the Australian dollar, which managed to strengthen its position against the US dollar and return to monthly highs.

According to published official data, in November 2017, compared with October, retail sales in Australia grew by 1.2%, while economists expected growth of 0.4%. As noted in the report, the main driver was the sale of household goods. In October, as compared to September, retail sales grew by 0.5%.