EUR/USD continued to trade in the negative zone today before and after the major fundamental reports in U.S. All reports showed either recession-signaling factors for the U.S. and the worlds economy or the purely U.S. dollar friendly values. EUR/USD is now trading near 1.3186.
CPI (Consumer Price Index) fell by 0.1% in March after rising by 0.4% in February. It was expected to go up by 0.1% in March.
Empire State Manufacturing index rose from its record low in March and increased from -38.2 to -14.7. That was a good surprise for the U.S. economy bulls as the forecasts showed only a small gain to -35.
Net purchases of the long-term U.S. securities were at $22 billion in February — up from -$36.8 billion in January (revised up from -$43 billion). This one was also better than the expected $10 billion.
Industrial production fell by another 1.5% in March repeating its Februarys «success». A decrease by 0.9% was expected by the market participants. Capacity utilization in United States reached its lowest level since the record of this indicator began in 1967 — 69.3% — down from 70.9% in February and below 69.6% forecast.
Crude oil inventories continued to gain in U.S. and rose by 5.6 million barrels last week compared with the previous week. Needless to say that they are still above the upper boundary of the average range for this time of year.
