The euro was on a downtrend against the US dollar for most of the European session having been in a consolidation phase during the Asian session. The single currency’s decline was largely precipitated by the modest recovery in the US dollar demand.
The EUR/USD currency pair today lost about 40 points to decline from a session high of 1.2079 to a low of 1.2039 during the early European session.
The release of the positive core Eurozone CPI data for December by Eurostat had minimal impact on the currency pair as it extended its downtrend. The core CPI came in at 1.1%, which was higher than the expected 1.0%. However, the overall CPI estimate came in at 1.4%, which was lower than the previous 1.5%. The upbeat German retail sales for November released by the Federal Statistical Office in the early European session also could not lift the euro despite coming in at an annual rate of 4.4% versus the expected 2.3%. The Markit Germany Construction PMI also posted an improvement by coming in at 53.7 as compared to the previous 53.1.
Other releases from the Eurozone such as the Markit Germany Retail PMI for December were also better than expected given that it came in at 55.1 versus the previous 54.6.
The currency pair’s short-term performance is likely to be affected by a slew of US economic releases including the non-farm payrolls report, the average hourly earnings report as well as the trade balance for November and the ISM Non-Manufacturing/Services Composite.
The EUR/USD currency pair was trading at 1.2047 as at 13:19 GMT having dropped from a daily high of 1.2079. The EUR/JPY currency pair was trading at 136.47 having rallied from a low of 136.06.
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