Investing.com -- EUR/USD fell sharply on Monday to retreat to fresh three-week lows, as soft euro zone inflation data for the month of February strengthened dovish arguments for the adoption of broad easing measures from the European Central Bank at a highly-anticipated meeting next week.
The currency pair traded between 1.0859 and 1.0962, before settling at 1.0875, down 0.0057 or 0.52% on the session. Since surging to three-month highs against the dollar in mid-February, the euro has closed lower in nine of the last 11 sessions. During that span, the euro has lost more than 3.7% versus the greenback. For the month as a whole, EUR/USD closed virtually flat, up 0.41%.
EUR/USD likely gained support at 1.0538, the low from December 3 and was met with resistance at 1.1496, the high from Oct. 15.
On Monday morning, Eurostat, the EU's statistic bureau said prices throughout the euro zone fell by 0.2% on an annual basis in February, representing the first time euro zone inflation fell into negative territory since September. Economists blamed the lion's share of the decline on persistently low oil prices, which have fallen more than 60% over the last 15 months. Following a 0.3% increase in January, euro zone inflation was expected to remain flat this month, according to consensus estimates.
Core inflation, which eliminates volatile food and energy prices, increased 0.7% on a yearly basis, slightly below forecasts for a 0.9% gain. It came one month after core inflation rose by 1.0% in January. The ECB, which is widely expected to approve a wide range of additional stimulus measures at its monetary policy on March 10, stood pat partly due to the negative impact of oil prices on inflation.
Elsewhere, further gains by the dollar were limited by a wave of disappointing data in the U.S. In a monthly report, the Institute for Supply Management said its Chicago Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) plummeted eight points in February to 47.6, falling outside consensus estimates for the third consecutive month. It came as backlog orders contracted for the 13th straight month, employment remained in contraction territory for a fifth consecutive month and prices contracted at their quickest pace since 2009. A subset enters contraction territory when its reading drops below 50.
Moments later, the National Association of Realtors said pending sales of existing homes slowed last month by 2.5% to 106.0, the lowest level since January of last year. On an annual basis, pending sales are up by just 1.4%, despite low unemployment figures and comparatively low mortgage rates. For the month of January, pending sales declined in three of the four regions of the U.S., with all but the South closing in the red.
The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the strength of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, rose to three-week highs at 98.39, before falling slightly back to close at 98.28.
Yields on the U.S. 10-Year fell three basis points to 1.73%, while yields on the Germany 10-Year lost four basis points to 0.11%. Yields on both 10-year government bonds fell at least 18 basis points on the month.