On Monday the greenback regained ground against a basket of other major
currencies, as markets digested the previous
week's soft U.S. economic reports.
On Friday the Commerce Department
reported that orders for durable goods, excluding aircraft, fell
0.5% in March, after a downwardly revised 2.2% drop in February.
The headline figure rose 4.0%, beating expectations for a 0.6% gain, but investors focused on underlying weakness in the report. The news sent the dollar lower.
These numbers came after recent weak reports on home sales, retail sales and industrial production, adding to signs of a slowdown in economic growth since the start of the year. The weak data led investors to push back expectations on the timing of an initial rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
Data also indicated that U.S. new home sales dropped 11.4% last month to 481,000 units, compared to expectations for a 5.3% fall to 513,000 units.
EUR/USD slid 0.42% to 1.0829.
The euro remained under pressure after euro area finance ministers said Friday that in order to get an access to any further funding, Greece must present a full economic reform plan by early May.
The pound was also lower, with GBP/USD down 0.41% to 1.5126.
Earlier, the Confederation of British Industry said that its index of industrial order expectations increased by 1.0 point to a reading of 1.0 this month from March’s reading of 0.0. Analysts had expected the index to rise by 4.0 point to 4.0 in April.
The Aussie was slightly down, with AUD/USD easing 0.09% to 0.7815, while NZD/USD edged up 0.18% to 0.7607. USD/CAD slipped 0.09% to trade at 1.2166.
The greenback was higher against the yen and the Swiss franc, with USD/JPY up 0.22% to 119.25 and with USD/CHF adding 0.20% to 0.9564.
