The euro has ticked lower in the Monday session. Currently, EUR/USD is trading at 1.1857, down 0.04% on the day. In economic news, it’s a quiet start to the week. There are no eurozone events on the calendar. The US will release Richmond Manufacturing Index, which is expected to slow to 22 points. On Wednesday, there are two key US indicators – CB Consumer Confidence and Pending Home Sales.
US numbers ended the week with a host of events, but the results were mixed, leaving EUR/USD unchanged on Friday. Core Durable Goods Orders declined 0.1%, missing the estimate of +0.5%. This marked the first decline since May. Durable Goods Orders rebounded with a gain of 1.3%, but this was well short of the estimate of 2.1%. Consumer confidence slowed to 95.9, shy of the estimate of 97.1 points. On the positive side, Personal Spending improved to 0.6%, edging above the estimate of 0.5%. As well, New Home Sales jumped to 733 thousand, crushing above the estimate of 654 thousand. This was the highest reading since September 2007.
The week of Christmas will be light on fundamentals, with only a handful of economic indicators. On Friday, Germany releases Final CPI, with the markets forecasting a strong gain of 0.5%. If Final CPI meets or exceeds the estimate, the euro should gain some ground against the US dollar. In November, the indicator improved to 0.3%, marking a 4-month high. In the eurozone, annual average inflation also inched higher to 1.5% in November, up from 1.4% in October. This marked a multi-year high. Still, inflation remains well below the ECB target of just below 2.0%, and ECB policymakers are unlikely to announce an end to their stimulus package until inflation moves closer to the 2.0% target.
