Euro Falls to April Low as Greek Budget Deficit Worsens

EUR/USD fell to it’s minimum level this month as the Greek budget deficit proved to be worse than expected while the fundamentals from U.S. supported the greenback. The currency pair is now trading near 1.3286 after hitting a daily bottom at 1.3276 today — the lowest level since March 26.

PPI rose faster than expected in United States, gaining 0.7% in March compared to 0.5% forecast. The gain followed a drop by 0.6% registered in February.

Initial jobless claims went down from 480k to 456k last week. Although, the decline is good for the U.S. economy the forecasts were more optimistic at a 450k value.

Existing home sales rose from the seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 5.01 million units to 5.35 million units in March. The traders expect a growth to 5.28 million units.

EUR/USD Declines on Signs of Growing Consumer Confidence in U.S.

EUR/USD declined today amid signs of economic growth in U.S. and concerns for European economic stability. The central bank in Spain took over the savings bank CajaSur, that was heavily harmed by the property-loan defaults, causing concern about resilence of European banking system. At the same time, reports from U.S. showed that consumer confidence increased and conditions on house market improved, adding to signs of U.S. economic recovery. EUR/USD trades near 1.2248 now.

S&P/Case-Shiller home price index based on the seasonally-adjusted prices decreased by 2.43% in March compared to the same month in 2009. It fell to 145.93 from 146 in month-to-month perspective.

Richmond Fed manufacturing index declined to 26 in May from April’s reading of 30. Analysts forecast decline to 25.

Consumer confidence increased to 63.3 in May up from 57.7 in April. A growth to 59.1 was expected.

Yesterday, a report on existing home sales was released, showing the increase to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.77 million units in April from an upwardly revised 5.36 million in March. Traders expected a 5.56 million increase.

EUR/USD Decline Continues as Concern for E.U. Economy Strengthens

The surge of optimism, brought by signs that China plans to relax yuan’s peg to the dollar, was short-lived and hasn’t helped the euro much. On the other hand, credit rating of BNP Paribas, which was decreased by Fitch Ratings from AA to AA-, reignited fears that the debt crisis will strangle European economy. News from the U.S. weren’t supportive to the dollar, though, as housing sector continues to show signs of weakness. Therefore, the decline of EUR/USD currency pair isn’t that big as it could be. EUR/USD trades now near 1.2274.

Richmond Fed manufacturing index declined to 23 in June from May’s reading of 26. Forex market participants expected it to drop to 21.

Existing-home sales were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.66 million units in May, down from an upwardly revised surge of 5.79 million units in April. Rather discouraging reading, considering that forecasts promised further growth to 6.17 million.