- US Dollar Index rises to fresh 10-day highs above 97.60.
- US economy expanded 2.1% annually in third quarter.
- Consumer confidence in eurozone continued to deteriorate in December.
The EUR/USD pair spent the first half of the day moving sideways above the 1.1100 handle but lost its traction during the early trading hours of the American session as the upbeat macroeconomic data releases provided a boost to the USD. As of writing, the pair was down 0.35% on the day at 1.1080.
USD steals the spotlight
The highly-anticipated data from the US on Friday confirmed that the US economy expanded by 2.1% in the third quarter as expected and allowed the greenback to preserve its daily recovery gains. Later in the session, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that Personal Income in November increased 0.5% on a monthly basis to beat the market expectation of 0.3%.
Additionally, the University of Michigan's Consumer Confidence Index improved to 99.3 in December's final reading from 96.8 in November to further help the USD gather strength. The US Dollar Index, which closed the day virtually unchanged at 97.40 on Thursday, capitalized on the data and was up 0.28% on the day at 97.68 at the time of press to reflect the positive impact of today's data on the USD's performance.
On the other hand, the European Commission's Consumer Confidence Index slumped to -8.2 (flash estimate) from -7.2 and came in worse than the market expectation of -7 to weigh on the shared currency.
There won't be any other macroeconomic data releases in the remainder of the day and the pair's action is likely to remain subdued in the first half of the next week due to the Christmas break.
Technical levels to watch for
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