EUR / USD remains below 1.2050, eye on FOMC Minutes

  • EUR / USD fell to its lowest level in nine days.
  • The US Dollar Index consolidates daily gains around 91.00.
  • The FOMC will publish the Minutes for the February meeting at 19:00 GMT.

After spending the first half of the day in a relatively tight range below 1.2100, the pair EUR/USD it came under renewed downward pressure early in the US session and fell to its lowest level in nine days at 1.2024. At the time of writing this report, the pair lost 0.52% on the day at 1.2042.

USD retains its strength

In the absence of major macroeconomic data releases from the euro area, the USD market valuation remained the main driver of the EUR / USD movements on Wednesday.

Risk aversion and upbeat US data helped the dollar outperform its rivals. The US Dollar Index (DXY), which fell to a multi-week low of 90.11 on Tuesday, posted impressive gains and rose above 91.00 for the first time in more than a week.

The US Census Bureau reported earlier in the day that Retail Sales in January increased 5.3% to $ 568.2 billion and exceeded the market expectation of a 1% increase by a wide margin. Meanwhile, the major Wall Street indices opened deep into negative territory and provided an additional boost to the DXY. At the moment, the S&P 500 is down 0.5% on the day at 3,912.

Later in the session, the FOMC will publish the Minutes from its February meeting. However, investors do not expect the statement to provide new information on the Fed’s policy outlook.

Technical levels

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