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EUR/USD steady on solid U.S. retail sales, hawkish ECB comments

Published 01/14/2014, 12:42 PM
Updated 01/14/2014, 12:43 PM
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Investing.com - The dollar rose against the euro on Tuesday after data revealed U.S. retail sales came in much better than expected in December, which gave investors room to view a soft December jobs report as an anomaly and unlikely to prevent the Federal Reserve from scaling down monthly bond purchases further this year.

Still, the euro remained steady in positive territory against the dollar due to bullish statements from a European Central Bank governor.

In U.S. trading, EUR/USD was trading at 1.3686, up 0.10%, up from a session low of 1.3649 and off a high of 1.3699.

The pair was likely to find support at 1.3638, Monday's low, and resistance at 1.3775, the high from Jan. 2.

The Commerce Department reported earlier that U.S. retail sales rose 0.2% in December, beating expectations for a 0.1% increase.

Core retail sales, which exclude automobile sales, expanded by 0.7% in December, well above forecasts for a 0.4% increase.

The news sparked demand for the dollar by cementing expectations for the Federal Reserve to continue scaling back its USD75 billion bond-buying program this year.

Fed asset purchases soften the greenback by depressing long-term interest rates to encourage investing and hiring, thus making stocks more attractive while such programs remain in place.

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the U.S. economy added 74,000 jobs in December, well below expectations for a 196,000 increase, which spooked markets though by Tuesday, investors began to view the figure as an anomaly and likely the product of rough winter weather that disrupted hiring.

Meanwhile in Europe, the euro saw demand after European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said the euro zone economy might surprise to the upside this year.

Elsewhere, data released earlier revealed that industrial production in the euro zone beat expectations in November.

Eurostat said industrial production rose 1.8% in November, beating expectations for a 1.4% gain, recovering from a downwardly revised decline of 0.8% in October. On a year-over-year basis, industrial production rose 3%, more than double expectations for a 1.4% increase.

The euro was down against the pound, with EUR/GBP sliding 0.30% to 0.8319, and up against the yen, with EUR/JPY trading up 0.95% 142.15.

On Wednesday, the U.S. is to release data on producer price inflation and a report on manufacturing activity in the New York region.








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