The dollar had a tough day’s trading today on the back of weak economic data, which showed the American economy is likely to grow more slowly in the near term.
The Conference Board’s leading economic index fell 0.1% in March following three months of gains, defying expectations for a rise. Separately, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s index of business conditions fell to 1.3 in April from 2.0 in March. Readings above zero indicate manufacturing is growing instead of shrinking. This is well below expectations, as analysts expected it to grow to 4.
The EUR/USD fell moderately against the euro trading down 0.2% to 1.3053 in the afternoon session, whilst the key Y100 level is proving a tough nut to crack, as the yen weakened, trading up 0.36% to 98.189 at the close of the U.S. session.
More Coverage of the Day’s Top Story
- Investing.com: EUR/USD erases gains after weak Philly Fed data. – The euro erased gains against the dollar on Thursday after unexpectedly weak U.S. manufacturing data reinforced concerns over the outlook for global economic growth.
- Ralph Shell: The euro takes a dive. – After chasing out euro shorts yesterday, running the EUR/USD well above the recent recovery to a new high slightly above 1.32, the pair has reversed today. The euro’s behavior had been baffling, considering the weak economy, the arrogant ending to the Cyprus crises, and the increasing European hostility to the austerity solution as proposed by Chancellor Merkel and her Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble.
- FT: Yen gains on Japanese investor inflows. – Japanese investors continued to defy expectations that the yen will be hit by a new wave of selling after figures showed domestic residents in Japan are continuing to repatriate money from overseas.
More Top Stories:
Investing.com: GBP/USD remains higher, but upside limited. – The pound remained higher against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, but gains were limited by data showing that U.K. retail sales fell in March, underlining concerns over the outlook for first quarter growth.
Investing.com: GBP/USD gains on U.S. factory data, U.K. retail sales. – A weaker than expected regional U.S. manufacturing index coupled with better-than-expected U.K. retail sales data pushed the pound up against the dollar on Thursday.
Trading Floor: GBP/USD still in limbo – awaiting break for confirmation. – GBP/USD bears appeared to have an argument with yesterday’s pattern reversal, but today’s action throws things back into doubt a bit, as does the fact that we’ve yet to break critical downside levels.
Investing.com: USD/CAD trims losses in early trade. – The U.S. dollar pared back losses against the Canadian dollar on Thursday as sentiment on the loonie remained weak after the Bank of Canada cut its outlook for growth on Wednesday.
FXStreet: AUD/USD back to opening levels. – The Australian dollar lost momentum during the American session and after peaking at 1.0336, the AUD/USD slid back below 1.0300 and into negative ground for the day. However, the Aussie found support at the 1.0280 area and rose back to around 1.0300, where it is trading at time of writing, virtually unchanged since opening.
Investing.com: Gold turns higher on bargain buying; Downbeat U.S. data supports. – Gold futures retraced steep overnight losses to trade higher during early U.S. morning trade on Thursday, as investors returned to the market to seek cheap valuations after prices re-approached a 27-month low earlier in the session.
Tom Luongo: Gold: Where are we now? – It’s the question on everyone’s minds. Whatever your view of the markets is will most likely determine your answer to the question in the title. Those bullish on gold, like me, will say that this is a gift from the powers that be and it represents one of the best buying opportunities you will ever see. If you are bearish, it will serve for you as a corroboration of your position, even if your reasons for being bearish were all wrong (and believe me I heard nearly every gold bearish theory in the first three months of this year).
Trading Floor: Headlines and sound bites rule the FX roost. – A market which is displaying signs of small exhaustion after a tumultuous few days is what we walk in to find today. Events and headlines over the last 18 hours have led us here and the market now (tired and a little confused) sits waiting for various sound bites to follow today. After all, it is almost the perfect storm ahead as we see the German Bundestag vote on the Cypriot bailout package, Italians attempt to elect a new president to replace Napolitano and of course the commencement of the two-day G20 summit.
Source Article from http://www.forexnews.com/blog/2013/04/18/dollar-falls-on-weak-u-s-economic-data-and-other-top-forex-news/
