The dollar paired with the euro, remained traded in the side channel. The British pound, after the publication of versatile statistics on the American economy, indicates a decline in economic growth at the end of last year and the beginning of this year.
According to the US Department of Commerce, the demand for durable goods in the US increased in December, but turned out to be worse than economists' forecasts. The fact that the investments of companies have declined over the above period is also a bad news.
Thus, orders for durable goods in December 2019 increased by 1.2%, while economists had forecast growth of 1.5%. Excluding the transportation orders that fall into the volatile category, orders, rose only by 0.1% in December.
Compared to the same period in 2018, total orders for durable goods increased by 8.1%.
Labor market data did not help the US dollar. According to a report by the US Department of Labor, the number of initial claims for unemployment benefits fell by 23,000 in the week from February 10 to February 16. Economists had expected that the number of initial claims would be 227,000.
But a weak report on housing sales in the secondary market of the United States has limited the upward potential of the US dollar, which was observed yesterday afternoon. This indicates that the demand for homes continues to decline in the United States at the beginning of this year again.
According to the National Association of Realtors USA , sales in the secondary housing market in January fell by 1.2% and amounted to 4.94 million homes per year. Economists had expected sales in January to grow by 0.6%, to 5.02 million homes. Compared with the same period of the previous year, sales in January fell by 8.5%.
The US business trend index declined in January. According to the report of the Conference Board, the leading indicators index in January 2019 decreased by 0.1% and amounted to 111.3 points. The data completely coincided with the forecast of economists. This suggests that, most likely, a slowdown in US GDP growth will continue.
The traders did not like the report on the decline in manufacturing activity in the US in February of this year. It happened against the background of weak demand, which leveled the growth of expenses of companies and consumers.
According to the IHS Market, PMI Purchasing Managers Index for the US manufacturing sector fell to 53.7 points in February against 54.9 points in January. But the service sector, on the contrary, showed an increase to 56.2 points against 54.2 points. Let me remind you that the index values above 50 indicate an increase in activity.
As for the technical picture of the EURUSD pair, it is still difficult to determine its further direction. Despite this, the market remains on the side of buyers of risky assets. And as long as trading continues above the support range of 1.1320, we can expect a recovery of the trading instrument to the area of this week's maximum of 1.1370. In case of pressure on the euro and a break of the lower border of the side channel in the area of 1.1320, The sellers target will be a large level in the area of 1.1280, where new buyers of risky assets will also declare themselves.
Today, a number of important fundamental statistics for Germany and the euro zone came, which may affect the future direction of the European currency.
