EUR/USD falls to daily lows near 1.1140 as focus shifts to Lagarde speech

The EUR/USD pair inched higher at the start of the week and touched a daily top of 1.1176 in the early trading hours of the European session boosted by upbeat macroeconomic data releases from the euro area. However, with the Greenback staging a decisive recovery against its major peers, the pair reversed its course and was last seen trading at 1.1145, erasing 0.2% on a daily basis.

Earlier on Monday, the IHS Markit's final reading of the Manufacturing PMI in October came in slightly higher than the previous estimates for both the eurozone and Germany to help the shared currency find demand. Additionally, the Sentix Investor Confidence Index improved to -4.5 for November from -16.8 and beat analysts' estimate of -13.8 by a wide margin.

Attention turns to Lagarde's first speech

At 19:30 GMT, Christine Lagarde, the incoming president of the European Central Bank (ECB), will be delivering her first speech. 

Previewing this event, “While there is some chatter about what exactly she'll say, tonight's appearance doesn't appear to be the kind of event where she's likely to deliver her first, big policy speech," noted TD Securities analysts. "She's speaking in Berlin at 2:30 pm ET at an event celebrating Wolfgang Schauble, Germany's current President of the Bundestag and former finance minister. It may not be looked upon too kindly from the Germans if she chooses that event to harshly criticize their fiscal stance.”

On the other hand, the US Dollar Index, which fell sharply on Friday despite the strong labour market data, is making a decisive recovery on Monday and forcing the pair to remain in the negative territory. At the moment, the US Dollar Index is up 0.3% on the day at 97.42.

The ISM-NY Business Conditions Index in October jumped to 45.9 to beat the market expectation of 45.8 but the Factory Orders declined by 0.6% in September following August's decline of 0.1%.

Technical levels to watch for