The Euro was little moved against the US Dollar on Friday despite the release of mixed economic data out of the world’s largest economy.
Yesterday’s disappointing GDP data out of the Eurozone continued to weigh upon the single currency.
Expectations that the European Central Bank will implement a new round of monetary easing measures at next month’s policy meeting are also high thanks to data showing that inflation in the Eurozone remains well below the ECB’s target of just under 2%.
The ‘Greenback’ could have made gains against the Euro but once again mixed data releases held the currency in check.
Earlier in the afternoon a report showed that the number of building permits issued in the USA increased by 8% to 1,080 million units last month. The figure beat economist forecasts for a figure of 1.010 million and was better than the preceding month’s number of 1,000 million.
The positive housing data was then quickly ignored by investors as a separate report showed that consumer confidence in the US fell in May due to a gloomy outlook on income growth.
The Euro to USD exchange rate is currently trading around 1.3711.
The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment preliminary reading for May showed that sentiment fell unexpectedly from the nine-month high seen in April. Increasing costs for fuel and food were said to be the main cause for the fall.
“The main concern behind the small May loss involved dispiriting trends in wages. Consumers judged the current state of the economy at the most favourable levels in ten years,” said survey director Richard Curtin.
The sentiment index fell to 81.8, below the 84.1 reading seen in the previous month and was below economist expectations for a figure of 84.5.
Looking ahead to next week the Euro could see some movement from Monday’s Construction Output data.
Euro Exchange Rate News:
[table width=”100%” colwidth=”50|50|50|50|50″ colalign=”left|left|left|left|left”]
Currency, ,Currency,Rate ,
Euro,
,US Dollar,1.3711 ,
Euro,,British Pound,0.8147 ,
Euro,,Australian Dollar,1.4639 ,
Euro,,Canadian Dollar,1.4906 ,
[/table]
