EUR/USD treads water near 1.17 as markets remain calm amid a lack of fresh catalysts

• Mixed data from the U.S. doesn’t allow the US Dollar Index to stage a deep recovery.
• Markit PMI readings on Tuesday will be watched for fresh impetus.

The EUR/USD pair seems to have gone into a consolidation phase near the 1.17 mark in the NA session as the lack of significant data releases and fundamental developments keep the trading action subdued. As of writing, the pair is down 0.2% on the day at 1.1698.

Today’s data from the United States showed that the National Activity Index released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago rose to 0.43 in June from 0.45 in May to suggest higher economic activity during that time period. However, the 0.6% reduction seen in existing home sales in June didn’t allow the greenback to take advantage of the upbeat Chicago Fed data. The US Dollar Index, which closed the previous week with small losses near 94.50, was last seen at 94.61, where it was up 0.15% on the day.

On the other hand, the data released by the European Commission showed that the Consumer Confidence Index in July stayed unchanged at -0.6% to come in slightly better than the market expectation of -0.7. Nonetheless, the shared currency didn’t show a notable reaction to the data.

On Tuesday, Markit is going to publish its PMI data for the manufacturing and the service sector in the euro area and later in the session in the United States. The pair is likely to be impacted by the U.S. reading more than the EU figures. Investors could use the upbeat data as an opportunity to long the USD following the unusually sharp fall witnessed in the DXY on Thursday and Friday following President Trump’s monetary policy comments.

Technical levels to consider

The immediate support for the pair aligns at 1.1690 (daily low/20-DMA) ahead of 1.1625 (Jul. 20 low) and 1.1570 (Jul. 10 low). On the upside, resistances could be seen at 1.1750 (daily high/Jul. 20 high), 1.1800/1.1805 (psychological level/Jun. 13 high) and 1.1880 (100-DMA).