Euro made an attempt to grow in the first half of the day amid a good report on consumer confidence in France. However, there was no support from the major players, which led to a decrease in the trading instrument closer to the North American session.
According to the statistics agency report, consumer confidence index in France in January of this year turned out to be much better than economists' forecast and rose again, which will necessarily affect the country's economic growth in the future. According to the report, consumer confidence reached 91 points in January of this year against 86 points in December. The consumer confidence index in France in January was projected at 88 points. It can be seen that consumers are optimistic about the future, which will necessarily affect their costs.
Today's absence of important fundamental statistics also allows bears to form the necessary pressure on the European currency.
Today's speech by US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin benefited the American dollar, although it was more informative in nature.
The official said that he did not see signs of a recession on the horizon, which economists like to talk about so much lately, and, in his opinion, the growth of the US economy in 2018 will reach 3%. Mnuchin also believes that there are good reasons for GDP growth in 2019 to reach 3%.
As for the trade war, then talk about the fact that the US president can go to the abolition of all import duties, not supported by anything. This was also mentioned today by the US Treasury Secretary. He noted that his department would make a recommendation on duties only after reaching an agreement with China, which American President Donald Trump is counting on.
As for the suspension and resumption of government work, Mnuchin evaded the answer to this question, only making it clear that the US president wants to reach a fair agreement on the financing of the wall on the border with Mexico to ensure border security.
Today, data came out that showed that the rise in house prices in the USA in November 2018 continued to slow down. According to a Case-Shiller report, the national housing price index in November 2018 increased by 5.2% compared with the same period of the previous year, after rising by 5.3% in October. It should be noted that the high-interest rates on mortgages directly affected the purchasing power of the population, which also led to a drop in sales in the secondary market due to lower housing affordability.
As for the technical picture of the EUR / USD pair, it remained unchanged compared with the morning forecast. The only point is that the market was taken over by bears, who are expecting a reversal of events precisely according to the support breakdown scenario of 1.1420 with a decrease in the trading instrument to areas of 1.1380 and 1.1340.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company - www.instaforex.com