EUR/USD Slumps as Bernanke Speaks

EUR/USD slumped today after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has started his semi-annual testimony to the Congress. US housing data was not particularly good today, but currently traders are hardly paying attention to anything but Bernanke’s speech.
Housing starts and building permits came out worse than market participants have hoped for. Housing starts were at the seasonally adjusted annual rate of 836k in June, compared to the forecast of 960k. Building permits were at the seasonally adjusted annual rate of 911k last month, missing the analysts’ estimate of 1 million. Both rates were smaller than the May’s 930k and 990k respectively. (Event A on the chart.)
US crude oil inventories decreased by 6.9 million barrels last week. This is compared to the previous week’s drop of 9.9 million and the predicted decrease of 1.9 million. Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 3.1 million barrels. (Event B on the chart.)


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