EUR/USD extends sell-off below 1.0200 as USD bulls refuse to give up

EUR/USD is falling like a house of cards, having surrendered the 1.0200 mark amid intense buying pressure seen around the US dollar.

The greenback remains the go-to safe-haven asset, as dismal Chinese data-led resurfacing growth fears spook investors’ sentiment.

Risk-off flows continue to dominate even as the American trading gets underway, with the downbeat Empire Manufacturing Survey and NAHB index doing little to deter dollar bulls.

Markets prefer to pile onto the dollars heading into Wednesday’s FOMC minutes showdown, which may reveal Fed policymakers' intent on the size of the future rate rises. The minutes may influence the market’s pricing of the September Fed rate hike, eventually impacting the USD valuations.

Meanwhile, the souring sentiment-driven sell-off in the US Treasury yields fail to lend any support to the spot. The main currency pair also remains undermined by growing recession risks in the euro area. Europe’s economic powerhouse, Germany, could enter into a recession amid the deepening energy crisis, with sinking Rhine waters making shipping along the river harder and adding to the supply-side issue.

Further up the river in Kaub, a noted bottleneck for shipping where the Rhine runs narrow and shallow, the reference level dropped below 40 centimeters, which could probably temper coal counts among key cargo moved on the waterway.

In the last hour, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said that “Germany had to introduce its new levy to help utilities cover the cost of replacing Russian supplies or else its energy market would collapse.” EUR bulls shrugged off Habeck’s comments amid relentless dollar demand.

EUR/USD: Technical levels to watch