EUR/USD weakens farther below mid-1.1200s, fresh 1-week lows post-US retail sales
| • The shared currency continues to be weighed down by today’s sluggish Euro-zone PMIs.
• The USD gets an additional boost after stronger than expected US monthly retail sales.
The EUR/USD pair maintained its heavily offered tone through the early North-American session and dropped to fresh one-week lows, further below mid-1.1200s post-US macro data.
Having repeatedly failed to find acceptance above the 1.1300 round figure mark, the pair met with some aggressive selling pressure on Thursday after yet another disappointing release of Euro-zone PMI prints for April. Sluggish European data weighed heavily on the shared currency and also reignited global growth fears, which further underpinned the US Dollar's relative safe-haven status.
The greenback got an additional boost in reaction to the latest macro data, showing that the US monthly retail sales recorded a stronger than expected 1.6% m/m growth in March. Adding to this, core retail sales - excluding automobiles, and the closely watched Retail Sales Control Group also bettered market expectations and remained supportive of the bid tone surrounding the buck.
Meanwhile, the better than expected release of the usual initial weekly jobless claims, coming in at 192K for the week ended April 12 as compared to a rise to 205K expected, was partly offset by a slight disappointment from the Philly Fed manufacturing index, which fell to 8.5 for April from 13.7 previous and 10.4 anticipated, and thus, failed to provide any additional bullish impetus.
Nevertheless, the pair remains on track to end the week on a downbeat note and erode a major part of the last week's goodish recovery gains, clearly indicating the resumption of the prior/well-established bearish trend.
Technical levels to watch
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