Euro Slightly Higher After Positive Eurozone Reports, Loses Gains Later

The euro was trading slightly higher against most other major currencies today, though against some of them it was flat. Macroeconomic reports released in the eurozone today were good, but traders focused their attention on the events that will be happening later this week. Among them will a monetary policy meeting of the European Central Bank. Currently though, the euro trimmed its gains, losing them against some rivals outright.
Destatis reported that the German trade balance surplus widened to â‚¬20.6 billion in October (calendar and seasonally adjusted) from €19.2 billion in September. Analysts had predicted a small decrease to â‚¬19.0 billion. Exports rose by 1.2% from the previous month, while imports were unchanged. Year-on-year, exports grew by 1.9%, while imports fell by 0.6%.
The Sentix Investor Confidence index for the eurozone rose from -4.5 in November to 0.7 in December, whereas analysts had predicted a drop to -5.4. The report highlighted that it was the second month of improving confidence despite global issues:

Many economic observers have come to terms with an economic downturn. But the “first mover” is sending an exclamation mark for the second month in a row with its dynamic turn: The sentix overall index for Euroland rises again, the expected values even reach the highest level since March 2018! Many things are going better than expected, the prospects are brightening across the globe. The Asia ex Japan region is developing into a special source of hope — especially for the German economy.

Talking about the German economy specifically, the report was optimistic as well:

The German economy can also score: Expectations even make it up and reach the highest level since February 2018.

The European Central Bank will conduct a monetary policy meeting on Thursday. The general consensus is that the ECB will leave the policy without changes. But market participants are still interested in what Christine Lagarde is going to say during her first press conference in the role of the ECB President and if she will signal a continuation of the cautious policy of the previous central bank’s chief Mario Draghi.
EUR/USD was little changed at 1.1060 as of 17:45 GMT today after rising to the daily high of 1.1078 earlier. EUR/JPY edged up from 120.10 to 120.16. EUR/CHF fell from 1.0938 to 1.0931 following the earlier rally to 1.0967.

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Original from: www.earnforex.com