The Euro to USD pairing was struggling to recover ground on Friday even as Eurozone consumer confidence improved.
This morning the Euro experienced minimal movement as data showed that the Eurozone’s first current account surplus to include Latvia advanced to 25.3 billion Euros.
The surplus was up from 20 billion Euros in December.
Meanwhile the measure of consumer sentiment in the 18-nation currency bloc advanced from -12.7 to -9.3 in March.
Economists had expected the gauge to climb to -12.3.
In the European Union as a whole confidence climbed from -9.3 to -6.7.
The improvement in confidence is reflective of the calmer political situation in key Eurozone nations and the run of competitively upbeat data to emerge from the currency bloc over the last few months.
However, while today’s reports were Eurozone-positive the Euro found it hard to break out of its fairly bearish relationship with a broadly stronger US Dollar.
The ‘Greenback’ has notably advanced against almost all of its most traded currency counterparts over the last few days as the odds of the Federal Reserve introducing its first interest rate increase before the end of the year climbed.
Bloomberg News quoted currency strategist Athanasios Vamvakidis as asserting; ‘The market perception that the Fed will always be dovish was wrong; we remain bullish on the Dollar. If we start to get good US data, the market will be much more comfortable longing Dollar.’
The safe-haven Dollar was also supported amid ongoing disquiet concerning Russian trade sanctions.
Next week US Dollar movement could be inspired by US Markit PMI, consumer confidence, new home sales, durable goods orders, growth figures and initial jobless claims data.
Eurozone news, including the regions services/manufacturing PMI for the currency bloc and its largest economy, may also trigger Euro to US Dollar fluctuations.
The Euro ends today in a stronger position against a poorly performing Pound but lower against the rallying Australian and New Zealand Dollars.
Euro (EUR) Exchange Rates
[table width=”100%” colwidth=”50|50|50|50|50″ colalign=”left|left|left|left|left”]
Currency, ,Currency,Rate ,
Euro,
,US Dollar,1.3802,
Euro,,British Pound,0.8368,
Euro,,Australian Dollar,1.5205,
Euro,,New Zealand Dollar,1.6152,
Euro,,Canadian Dollar,1.5468,
[/table]
