EUR/USD climbed today, rising for the second session, as the eurozone economic sentiment improved, giving hope that the region will emerge from recession. The European Commission reported that the confidence index increased by 0.8 points to 89.4 in May. Meanwhile, the US reports disappointed, being worse than market participants have hoped for.
US GDP rose 2.4% in the first quarter of 2013 from a year ago, according to the preliminary (second) estimate, a downward revision from the advance estimate of 2.5%. The economy expanded 0.4% in the fourth quarter of 2012. (Event A on the chart.)
Initial jobless claims rose from 344k to 354k last week, while analysts have expected a small decrease to 342k. (Event A on the chart.)
Pending home sales grew only a little by 0.3% in April. The growth was below the forecast of 1.3%. The March increase was at 1.5%. (Event B on the chart.)
Crude oil inventories increased by 3.0 million barrels last week, following the drop by 0.3 million barrels in the previous week, and are above the upper limit of the average range, and at their highest level since EIA began collecting data in 1978. Experts have forecast a decrease by 0.8 million barrels. Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 1.5 million barrels and are in the upper half of the average range. (Event C on the chart.)
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