Euro Declines on Weak Eurozone PMI Releases Amid Poor NFP Data

The euro today was on a downtrend against the US dollar following the release of weak PMI data from across the Eurozone by IHS Markit. The euro’s downtrend was further accelerated by the release of disappointing Eurozone retail sales data for March in the early European session.
The EUR/USD currency pair today lost over 80 points to decline from a high of 1.1995 to a low of 1.1910.
The currency pair was on a downtrend from the late Asian session and the release of the Markit Germany Services PMI, which came in at 53.0, as compared to the expected 54.1 accelerated the pair’s decline. The Markit Eurozone Services PMI also contributed to the decline by coming in at 54.7 versus the expected 55.0. Later on, the release of the Eurozone retail sales data by Eurostat also affected the pair negatively as retail sales grew by 0.1% in March as compared to the forecasted 0.5% growth rate. The retail sales came in at an annualized 0.8% versus the consensus estimate of 1.9%.
The pair’s decline extended into the early American session following the release of the Change in non-farm payrolls data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The NFP came in at 164,000 versus the expected 193,000. The US unemployment rate came in at 3.9% versus the forecasted 4.0%, while the average hourly earnings grew by 0.1% as opposed to the expected 0.2% growth rate.
Given the upcoming weekend, the pair’s future performance is likely to be influenced by geopolitical events from both the USA and the Eurozone.
The EUR/USD currency pair was trading at 1.1942 as at 16:31 GMT having dropped from a high of 1.1995. The EUR/JPY currency pair was trading at 130.33 having declined from a high of 130.88.

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