Although the dollar stood lower versus many major currencies, the USD level had minimal reaction to the information reveled by the Federal Reserve about American gross domestic product which in the first quarter fell much more than it was planned.
Right after the release of the information, the dollar almost didn’t change its positions and it is still holding its positions against both the euro and the pound of sterling.
One of the reasons, why the dollar didn’t weaken despite the negative GDP growth reports, is that the American Commerce Department also informed about increased customer spending in the US in the period from January to the end of March 2009.
The GDP decrease in the first quarter was not much different from the fourth quarter in 2008 and dropped to 6.1% (compare to 6.3% in October to December of 2008), but it turned out to be a lot worse than experts from the Wall Street had expected.
As many experts say, the economic situation in the US is now at the very bottom; therefore many traders stay neutral to the American currency. During the past few days, although, due to the positive information regarding customer spending in the US, the dollar has improved against its major rivals – the euro, pound of sterling and the yen.