EUR/USD is hugging the 1.17 line in the Tuesday session. Currently, the pair is trading at 1.1693, up 0.01% on the day. On the release front, German and Eurozone manufacturing PMIs beat expectations, but services PMIs missed their forecasts. There are no major U.S releases. On Wednesday, German Ifo Business Climate is expected to dip to 101.6 points and U.S New Home Sales is forecast to drop sharply to 671 thousand.
Eurozone and German manufacturing PMIs continue to point to expansion. The German release improved to 57.3, easily beating the estimate of 55.5, while the eurozone reading of 55.1 was above the forecast of 54.7. Both indicators had dropped over six consecutive months and the July releases put an end to that nasty streak. With the tariff war threatening to hurt German and eurozone exports, investors have been keeping a close eye on manufacturing data. Services PMIs were not as strong, as the German and eurozone releases missed their estimates.
The U.S. dollar has steadied this week, after broad losses on Friday. Investors reacted negatively to comments by President Trump which were critical of Federal Reserve monetary policy. On the weekend, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin engaged in damage control, saying at the G-20 meeting that Trump was not interfering with the Fed policy of gradually raising rates. However, investors weren’t buying Mnuchin’s apologetics, and the U.S dollar continued to lose ground in Monday’s Asian session. There was more for investors to fret over, as Trump also attacked the EU and China for manipulating their currencies and keeping interest rates lower. This has raised concerns that the current global trade tensions could be followed by a currency war. Growing concerns over the dangers of the ongoing trade war were summed up in the final communiqué from the G-20 meeting in Argentina over the weekend, which noted that “heightened trade and geopolitical tensions pose an increased risk to global growth”.
