The euro today fell to new weekly lows against the US dollar following the release of disappointing German manufacturing PMI by IHS Markit earlier today. The EUR/USD currency pair fell to new lows after PMI data indicated that the euro area manufacturing sector was still contracting at a fast rate.
The EUR/USD currency pair today fell from a session high of 1.1304 to a low of 1.1241 in the hours following the release and was trading near these lows at the time of writing.
The currency pair opened today’s session trading in a directionless manner swinging between losses and gains for most of the Asian session. However, the pair broke out of its consolidative range in the early European session following the release of the Markit Germany manufacturing PMI for April. The flash print came in at 44.5, which was lower than the consensus estimate of 45.0. However, the Markit Germany services PMI came in at 55.6 beating expectations set at 55.1. The pair had a muted reaction to the German producer price index for March released by the Federal Statistics Office, which posted a 0.1% contraction instead of the expected 0.2% increase.
The Markit eurozone manufacturing PMI also missed expectations as did the services PMI and the composite PMI, which painted a bad picture of the eurozone economy. The Markit France services PMI also beat expectations, while the country’s manufacturing PMI missed expectations.
The currency pair’s short-term performance is likely to be affected by the release of the US retail sales at 12:30 GMT.
The EUR/USD currency pair was trading at 1.1252 as at 12:04 GMT having fallen from a high of 1.1304. The EUR/JPY currency pair was trading at 125.88 having dropped from a high of 126.56.
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