The dollar is turning in a mixed performance against its major rivals, but is overall little changed. The U.S. currency is down slightly against the Euro, but is gaining ground against the British pound after some comments from the Bank of England.
Investors are back in action after the long holiday weekend, but there was little U.S. economic data to drive the direction of trading.
U.S. homebuilder sentiment for January is pointing to “gradual improvement” in housing market, the National Association of Home Builders said Tuesday. The industry group’s metric for homebuilder sentiment was unchanged at 60 in January, but the December reading was revised slightly lower. Economists were expecting a score of 62.
Investors can look forward to the release of the U.S. consumer price index Wednesday morning, as well as housing starts. Weekly jobless claims and the Philly Fed index are on tap for Thursday. The week will close out with existing home sales and the leading economic index on Friday.
The dollar reached a high of $1.0859 against the Euro Tuesday, but has since slipped to around $1.0935.
German economic confidence dropped for the first time in three months in January as investors turned cautious as to how the market turmoil in China would affect the domestic economy. The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment dropped to 10.2 in January from 16.1 in December, the Mannheim-based Centre for European Economic Research, or ZEW, showed Tuesday.
This was the lowest score since October. Nonetheless, the reading stayed above the expected score of 8 points.
Germany’s consumer price inflation reached its lowest level since 2009, data from Destatis revealed Tuesday. Inflation eased to 0.3 percent in 2015 from 0.9 percent in 2014. The year-on-year rate of price increase has been declining since 2011, Destatis said.
Eurozone inflation rose slightly as estimated in December, final data from Eurostat showed Tuesday. Inflation rose to 0.2 percent in December from 0.1 percent in November. The rate came in line with flash estimate published on January 5.
The euro area current account surplus increased in November largely due to a rise in primary income, the European Central Bank reported Tuesday. The current account surplus rose to EUR 26.4 billion from EUR 25.6 billion in October.
Eurozone construction output increased for the second straight month in November, figures from Eurostat showed Tuesday. Construction output grew a seasonally adjusted 0.8 percent month-over-month in November, faster than the 0.6 percent gain in the previous month, which was revised up from a 0.5 percent rise reported earlier.
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said there is no set timetable for interest rate hike, but only has an expected direction of travel.
Since last summer, progress has been insufficient along these dimensions to warrant a tightening of monetary policy, Carney said in a speech in London on Tuesday.
He noted that the UK growth has slowed and inflation weakened due to the oil price collapse. He expects inflation to remain very low for longer.
“Recent developments suggest that the firming in inflationary pressure we had expected will take longer to materialise,” Carney said.
The buck dipped to an early low of $1.4340 against the pound sterling, but has since climbed to around $1.4190.
U.K. inflation rose marginally as expected to a 11-month high in December on higher air fares while lower food prices limited the pace of price growth. Consumer prices rose 0.2 percent on a yearly basis, following a 0.1 percent increase in November, data from the Office for National Statistics revealed Tuesday. This was the second consecutive rise in prices.
U.K. house price inflation accelerated for the fourth straight month in November to the highest level in eight months, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed Tuesday. The house price index climbed 7.7 percent year-over-year in November, faster than October’s 7.0 percent rise.
The greenback rose to a high of Y118.113 against the Japanese Yen Tuesday morning, but has since pulled back to around Y117.335, nearly flat for the session.
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