A surprising and significant slump in US durable goods orders left the US Dollar weaker during the North American session and the Euro was able to advance on its suddenly struggling peer.
While durable goods orders were expected to climb by 1.8 per cent in December they actually plummeted by 4.3 per cent following a gain of 2.6 per cent in November which was smaller than forecast.
In light of December’s less-than-impressive US non-farm payrolls report and the several below-estimate data releases seen in recent weeks, today’s result could be the final nail in the tapering coffin.
The Federal Open Market Committee is due to deliver its policy announcement tomorrow. While investors are expecting the central bank to trim easing by 10 billion Dollars, restraint on their part could pull the rug of underlying support from under the US Dollar and see emerging market currencies climb.
The Euro was also supported against its North American peer by hopes that tomorrow’s German consumer confidence data will show improvement, adding weight to the argument that Germany continues to drive the Eurozone’s economy forward.
However, before the end of European trading the EUR/USD pairing trimmed gains as a measure of US consumer confidence unexpectedly climbed from 78.1 in December to 80.7 in January.
The result flies in the face of last month’s disappointing US employment report and indicates that the US populace is comfortable with the thought of the Federal Reserve gradually reigning in stimulus in the months ahead.
A separate report revealed that home values climbed in November in 20 US cities, with prices rising by the most since early 2006.
In other currency exchange news, the Pound posted modest gains against several of its major rivals over the course of the day as the UK economy was shown to have expanded by 0.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2013, as expected by economists.
The Indian Rupee also enjoyed a day of advances as the Reserve Bank of India surprised economists by raising the repurchase rate to 8 per cent.
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,1.3676,
Euro,,British Pound,0.8240 ,
Euro,,Australian Dollar,1.5509,
Euro,,New Zealand Dollar,1.6522,
Euro,,Canadian Dollar,1.5270 ,
[/table]
