The Euro (EUR) has made a gain of 1.1% against the US Dollar (EUR/USD) today, something potentially triggered by the incoming storm that is likely to hit the US economy in the near future.
Reduction in US Inventories Fails to Generate Any Investor Reassurance Today
While the earlier US Wholesale Inventories figure for December remained negative, thereby showing more purchasing in the Christmas month, this failed to reassure investors in the US currency, which has largely tanked today.
Earlier…
The Euro to US Dollar (EUR/USD) exchange rate has been trending in a narrow range today, although at the time of writing the Euro’s (EUR) value was on the negative side of the line. Meanwhile, investors in the US Dollar (USD) have displayed cautious optimism.
EUR/USD Exchange Rate News: Slow News Week for Euro Punctuated by Disappointing Data
The Euro (EUR) has slumped overall today, with losses including -0.2% against the US Dollar (EUR/USD) and the South African Rand (EUR/ZAR), -0.4% against the Japanese Yen (EUR/JPY) and -0.5% against the Canadian Dollar (EUR/CAD). On the brighter side, a gain of 0.4% against the Australian Dollar (EUR/AUD) has been recorded.
The most impactful Eurozone releases of late have been negative ones, comprising of Germany’s Industrial Production and Balance of Trade results for December. Forecasts were not particularly positive to begin with, but the actual slide from 0.1% to -2.2% for the industrial figure and a contraction of the trade surplus from 20.5bn to 18.8bn exceeded the worst estimates. This represents a change of tune for some of last week’s German economic contributions.
US Dollar (USD) Strengthens as Crude Oil Costs Make Steady Upwards Movement
With little in the way of impactful domestic data releases, the US Dollar (USD) has instead been shifted so far this week by the price of crude oil per barrel. Yesterday, the commodity price remained at an unsupportive $29.75 figure but today, this has spiked upwards to the marginal but still-improved cost of $30.50.
Elsewhere in the US today, voters are engaging with the democratic process to have their say in who should be the frontrunners for both the Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns; at the time of writing, radical business mogul Donald Trump was once again ahead in the polls for the Republican side while for the Democrats left-wing candidate Bernie Sanders was expected to gain a sizable lead over Hilary Clinton. At this point, it is worth remembering that Trump came second in the previous vote despite the polls and Sanders and Clinton ended at a virtual tie.
The US Dollar has made a 0.3% gain against the New Zealand Dollar (USD/NZD) today but has fallen by -0.3% against the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY).
EUR/USD Exchange Rate Forecast: US Wholesale Industries and PT Unemployment Data Due Today
In the near-future we’ll see some comparatively high-impact releases from both the Eurozone and the US.
The Eurozone will see Portugal’s Q4 Unemployment Rate stats announced – a rise from 11.9% to 12.1% was forecast at the time of writing.
From the US will be the reduction-forecast wholesale inventories result for December, which was expected to remain negative with a shift from -0.3% to -0.1% at the time of writing.
Current EUR, USD Exchange Rates
The Euro to US Dollar (EUR/USD) exchange rate was trending in the region of 1.1174 and the US Dollar to Euro (USD/EUR) exchange rate was trending in the region of 0.8951 today.