The EUR remains on the back foot, following sensitivity to economic data earlier in the week. This time around the ECB's Economic Bulletin tests support.
It was a relatively busy morning on the European economic calendar. Economic data from Germany and the Eurozone and the ECB’s monthly Economic Bulletin were in focus.
Following some woeful retail sales figures from Germany in the week, construction PMI numbers also disappointed.
In January, the IHS Markit Construction PMI fell from 47.1 to 46.6.
While stats from Germany continued to disappoint, retail sales figures for the Eurozone were upbeat. This was in spite of a 9.6% slump in German retail sales back in December.
For the Euro bloc, retail sales rose by 2.0% in December, coming in ahead of a forecasted 1.6% increase. In November, retail sales had fallen by 5.7%.
According to Eurostat,
By member state
While economic data was skewed to the positive for the EUR, the ECB’s Economic Bulletin delivered yet more warnings.
In the wake of the ECB monetary policy press conference, the Economic Bulletin warned that economic conditions could sour again in Q4.
Headline points from the Bulletin included:
Once more the EUR was on the back foot, falling off early highs in response to the ECB Economic Bulletin. The EUR slid from pre-release $1.20 levels to a current day low $1.19831 before finding support.
At the time of writing, the EUR was down by 0.38% to $1.19896.
For the European equity markets, the bulletin also weighed on the majors, before finding support.
At the time of writing, the EuroStoxx600 was up by 0.06%, with the CAC40 and DAX30 rising by 0.23% and by 0.26% respectively.
With over 20 years of experience in the finance industry, Bob has been managing regional teams across Europe and Asia and focusing on analytics across both corporate and financial institutions. Currently he is covering developments relating to the financial markets, including currencies, commodities, alternative asset classes, and global equities.