EUR/USD is unchanged in the Tuesday session. Currently, the pair is trading at 1.1683, up 0.01% on the day. It’s another quiet day on the data front, with no Eurozone indicators. In the U.S, there are two minor events which are unlikely to affect EUR/USD. On Wednesday, the U.S releases building permits and housing starts.
There was rampant speculation that another round of tariffs in the U.S-China trade war was in the offing, and President Trump has delivered the goods. On Monday, Trump imposed tariffs of 10% on some $200 billion worth of Chinese goods and threatened further action if China retaliated. Why did the currency markets not react? Investors were braced for a move by Trump, and may be sighing in relief that the tariff was set at 10% rather than at 25%. One senior economist summed up Trump’s most recent salvo as “bad but manageable”. However, if the Chinese retaliate and the U.S takes further measures, this would likely shake up the currency markets and boost the U.S dollar.
In the U.S, last week’s consumer spending and inflation data was a disappointment. Retail sales in August dropped to 0.1%, down from 0.5% a month earlier. This missed the estimate of 0.4%. Core retail sales followed a similar trend, falling from 0.6% to o.3%. It missed the forecast of 0.5%. These key consumer spending numbers come on the heels of CPI, which came in at just 0.2% and missed the estimate of 0.3%. There was better news from UoM Consumer Sentiment in September, which jumped to 100.8, above the estimate of 96.7 points, This marked the first time that the indicator cracked the 100-level since March.
