The EUR/USD has kept the rise after the release of weak US statistics

23.05.2015

Euro keeps growing against the US dollar after a series of disappointing US data reinforced concerns about the strength of recovery, putting pressure on the dollar.

During the US morning trade, the EUR/USD reached 1.1181, a peak from Tuesday, and subsequently consolidated at 1.1131, rising 0.34%.

The pair was likely to find support at 1.0958, the low of April 29 and resistance at 1.1277, the high of May 12.

The US Labor Department reported that the number of initial applications for unemployment benefits for the week ending May 16 rose 10000 to 274000 from 264000 the previous week. Analysts expected an increase of applications for 7000 to 271000.

Meanwhile, the US National Association of Realtors said that sales of existing homes fell in April by 3.3% to 5.04 million from a revised last month's 5.21 million. Analysts had forecast an increase of 1.0% to 5.24 million.

In addition, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported that its index of manufacturing activity fell this month to 6.7 from 7.5 in April, confounding expectations of growth to 8.0.

The data came after a report of another Fed meeting, released on Wednesday, had virtually no effect on the expectation that the rate will be raised later this year, while the majority of the bank's officials believe that a rate increase in June would be premature.

Investors transferred all their attention on Friday US inflation data and the speech of the Fed's Janet Yellen to get fresh instructions on how the economy behaves.

The European currency found support after data showed that the index of business activity in the manufacturing sector (PMI) of France for May rose to 49.3 this month, from 48.0 in April, while the index of business activity (PMI) in France's service sector for May rose to 51.6 from 51.4 in the previous month.

However, activity in Germany, the eurozone's largest economy, slowed to a five-month low, feeding the fears that economic growth is losing momentum.

The preliminary value of the European composite index of business activity (PMI), released by the Markit, fell to three-month low 53.4 from 53.9 in April.

The euro fell against the pound, EUR/GBP pair fell 0.54% to 0.7100.

UK data released earlier showed that retail sales rose last month 1.2%, much higher than the expected increase of 0.4%.

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