US new home sales dropped to 440K. They were predicted to slide to an annual level of 447K in February after the strong 468K in January (now revised down to 455K). The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence indicator climbed to 82.3 points. It was expected to remain almost unchanged and rise from 78.1 (now revised to 78.3) to 78.7 points. The positive surprise in confidence seems to beat the small miss in home sales. This is the highest confidence since 2008.
Before the publication, EUR/USD was falling to around 1.3785 while USD/JPY traded around 102.40 and GBP/USD managed to hold above 1.65. The USD reacted with a small rise, especially against the euro but this changed quickly to a sell off of the dollar.
USD/CAD was around 1.1170, AUD/USD at 0.9150 and NZD/USD steady around 0.8540. Basically, the euro stood out with its weakness as the ECB member Jozef Makuch warned about higher chances of deflation and readiness to act.
The Richmond Manufacturing Index disappointed with a drop to -7 points. It carried expectations for a rise from -6 to -1 points. This is a third tier indicator.
A previous round of US releases saw a continued rise in house prices, albeit at a slower pace. The C&S and FHFA figures were close to expectations and did little to move markets.
For EUR/USD traders, an upcoming speech by ECB president Mario Draghi is the next big thing, at 16:00 GMT.
Further reading: 3 forex combinations
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