The dollar is turning in a mixed performance against its major rivals Wednesday afternoon, amid subdued trading in a holiday-shortened week. The buck is down slightly against both the Euro and the British pound, but is up slightly against the Japanese Yen.
Trading volumes remain light, as many traders are still away from their desks following Christmas and heading into another long holiday weekend for New Year’s. There was little help to be found on the economic front, as results this morning proved mixed.
After reporting an unexpected improvement in U.S. consumer confidence in the previous month, the Conference Board released a report on Wednesday showing a much bigger than expected pullback in confidence in the month of December.
The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index slumped to 122.1 in December from a downwardly revised 128.6 in November. Economists had expected the consumer confidence index to edge down to 128.0 from the 129.5 originally reported for the previous month.
Pending home sales in the U.S. unexpectedly showed a modest increase in the month of November, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors on Wednesday.
NAR said its pending home sales index inched up by 0.2 percent to 109.5 in November after surging up by 3.5 percent to 109.3 in October. Economists had expected pending home sales to dip by 0.5 percent.
The dollar has dropped to around $1.19 against the Euro Wednesday, from an early high of $1.1854.
The buck fell to a low of $1.3428 against the pound sterling Wednesday, but has since rebounded to around $1.34.
The greenback rose to a high of Y113.373 against the Japanese Yen Wednesday, but has since eased back to around Y113.275.
Japan’s housing starts declined at a slower-than-expected pace in November, data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism showed Wednesday. Housing starts fell 0.4 percent year-on-year in November, much slower than October’s 4.8 percent decrease.
That was also below the 2.6 percent drop economists had forecast. Moreover, it was the fifth successive monthly fall.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com
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