The plethora of the macroeconomic statistics that was out in the U.S. today moved EUR/USD up and down with a great strength during the Forex trading session. Eventually, despite the bad reading in almost all reports, the dollar took the upper hand and is now leading in its rivalry against the euro. EUR/USD is currently trading near 1.3173.
Import prices fell by 4.2% in December, following 7% decline in November. Import prices fell by 2.3% last December and by 3.4% a month earlier.
Retail sales in the United States were down by 2.7% in December, following 2.1% drop in November (revised down from 1.8% decline). That result is much worse than the forecast drop of 1.8%.
Business inventories were down by 0.7% in November after 0.6% drop in October and worse than the expected decline by 0.5%.
Crude oil inventories increased by 1.2 million barrels during the last week and now are above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year.
