Euro down awaiting retail sales figures

The Euro was unable to continue is upward moment against the US dollar yesterday and continues to trade lower in today’s trading session as traders await key data from both the Eurozone and the US

The news will begin during the European session with the release of GDP figures from the Eurozone with a number expected to come it at 2% which is unchanged from last month. Some movement EUR/USD currency pair should the results hit the market above or below market consensus, otherwise we don’t expect much noise.

The more important news will be released later today, namely the July US retail sales numbers from the US where analysts expect a figure of -0.2% in July which is well down on the previous months figure of 0.6% in June. If analysts are correct, this may give a boost to the Euro against the greenback as it may show a worrying downtrend in consumer confidence after last Friday’s disappointing Michigan Consumer Sediment index figures.

Heading into Wednesday, the market will await inflation numbers from the Eurozone and later in the day, the Fed minutes will shed more light on the sentiment among Fed officials about the state of the American economy and how they see US monetary policy moving forward. Things are already starting to heat up as Fed board members Raphael Bostic and Mary Daly said that the central bank will likely start tapering its asset purchases later this year. 

The EUR/USD currency pair once again faced strong resistance in yesterday’s trading session as was solidly rejected at the $1.1800 mark and is now 40 points lower at $1.1760 as we enter today’s European trading session.

The $1.1800 level will need to be broken for the Euro to maintain some type of uptrend and it seems this will only be made possible if the US retail sales figures due for release later today come in significantly lower that what the market expects.