The US dollar erased gains versus the euro and closed lower against some other major currencies, including the Great Britain pound and the Japanese yen, as fundamental reports from the United States were not good at all, making market participants question necessity of stimulus tampering.
Today’s reports from the US were surprisingly poor. Retail sales rose just 0.2 percent, missing the forecast of 0.5 percent. The University of Michigan reported that the consumer sentiment index unexpectedly slumped from 82.1 last month to 76.8 this month, according to the preliminary estimate, instead of increasing as was expected by economists.
This data makes analysts question if reduction of quantitative easing really is a viable option. Traders still expect some form of QE reduction, but feel less certain about it.
EUR/USD ended almost the session flat at 1.3301 today after sliding from 1.3296 to 1.3254. GBP/USD surged from 1.5802 to 1.5873, while USD/JPY dipped from 99.53 to 99.23 following the rise to 99.97.
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