After a few good US figures, the preliminary consumer confidence slips to 89.5. Current conditions and expectations both miss with 108.7 and 77.1 points. Business inventories beat with 0.2%. This will add a bit to GDP calculations for Q2.
The USD halts its rise and some profit taking is seen.
The University of Michigan’s preliminary consumer sentiment report for July was expected to tick up to 93.7 from 93.5 in the final figure for June. Business inventories, released at the same time, carried expectations for an advance worth 0.1%.
The US dollar has been on the move thanks to good data coming out earlier. Retail sales rose more than expected in both headline and core numbers. Core CPI also beat with 2.3% and even the manufacturing sector enjoyed good news with a rise of 0.6% in industrial output, also better than predicted.
Currencies
- EUR/USD was sliding to 1.1080, at the low end of the recent range.
- GBP/USD turned negative for the day, trading around 1.3290. It is around 200 pips off the highs seen in the Asian session, after the BOE left rates unchanged.
- USD/JPY was up to 105.80, enjoying helicopter talk all week long.
- USD/CAD was rising from the lows trading at 1.2915.
- AUD/USD was around 0.7610 ahead of the release, sliding from the highs inspired by the good Chinese news.
- NZD/USD continued its sell off, trading around 0.7140.
Also the terror attack in Nice, France, dampens the mood in markets.