Euro Drops on Weak Data amid Investor Fears of New US Car Tariffs

The  euro today was on  a  downtrend against the  US dollar from the  early Asian session as  investors worried about the  introduction of  new car tariffs by  the  US. The  pair spiked higher briefly in  the  early European session, but quickly gave up its gains following the  release of  weak macro data from across the  eurozone.
The  EUR/USD currency pair today hit a  high of  1.1325 briefly before falling to  new daily lows at  1.1275 and  was near this level at  the  time of  writing.
The  release of  the  eurozone current account data by  the  European Central Bank was the  main trigger behind the  pair’s initial decline as  the  print missed expectations. The  December current account data came in  at  â‚¬16.0 billion versus the  expected €21.4 billion. The  weak Italian industrial sales data for  December released by  Istat at  the  same time also contributed to  the  fall as  the  print registered a  massive contraction raising alarms about a  recession in  Italy. The  release of  the  German ZEW economic sentiment indicator shortly afterwards provided a  brief respite to  the  pair as  the  print was within consensus estimates.
The  eurozone construction output for  December also met expectations boosting the  pair as  did the  Eurozone ZEW survey. However, the  pair soon headed lower as  investor fears of  new US import tariffs on  European-made cars resurfaced.
The  currency pair’s future performance is likely to  be affected by  trade headlines, tomorrow’s German PPI data, and  the  US FOMC minutes.
The  EUR/USD currency pair was trading at  1.1291 as  at  13:08 GMT having dropped from a  high of  1.1325. The  EUR/JPY currency pair was trading at  125.06 having declined from a  high of  125.47.

If you have any questions, comments or opinions regarding the Euro,
feel free to post them using the commentary form below.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *