CB Consumer Confidence falls to 95.2 – USD extends falls

Consumption is a huge part of the US economy, and if consumers are not confident, who will be? The CB consumer confidence measure drops to 95.2 from a revised 1014 points. This is way lower than the forecasts.

The US dollar retreats  a bit further.

Among the components, jobs hard to get rose from 25.5 to 26.4 points, expectations dropped from 96 to 87.6 and inflation from 5.2% to 4.8%.

• EUR/USD is up to 1.0970, ignoring worries about Greece.
• GBP/USD is already at 1.5320 despite weak GDP with political implications.
• USD/JPY is down to 118.80.
• USD/CAD is down to 120.40.
• AUD/USD is up to 0.7985, and is clearly one of the big winners. Can it break 0.80?
• NZD/USD is at 0.7720.

The Conference Board’s consumer confidence measure for April was expected to rise to 102.6 from 101.3 points in March (before revisions).

The US dollar was  falling throughout the day, losing to seemingly weaker currencies as well as stronger ones.

The  Richmond Manufacturing Index was released at the same time and was predicted to rise from -8 to -2 for April. The actual number is -3 points.

Consumer confidence measures  have  a significant impact despite the lack of  consistent correlation between them and actual spending as seen in the retail sales  figures

Earlier, the Case Shiller HPI came out above expectations with price rises of 5% y/y, more than 4.7%. expected.

Tomorrow we have more important events: the release of US GDP and the Fed decision:

• EUR/USD: Trading the US Advance GDP
• FOMC Preview – 5 keys to look out for

In our latest podcast we take a deep dive into the various euro-zone issues, a look at China and a new trading education initiative

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