EURUSD stopped growing; the statistics failed the "greenback". The major currency pair is rather neutral early in the week. The current quote for the instrument is 1.1426. The statistics published by the US were disappointing. It seems like the Omikron strain together with surging inflation penetrated the country’s economy and financial system much deeper than anyone could have imagined. The Retail Sales plummeted by 1.9% m/m against the expected decline of 0.1% m/m. At the same time, the November reading was revised downwards, -0.2% m/m. It seems like Americans managed to buy Christmas presents earlier than December and spent not as much money as usual.
Industrial Production in the US also dropped in December and showed -0.1% m/m against the expected reading of +0.2% m/m. The month before, the indicator added 0.7% m/m.
However, not only the Omikron strain probable has an influence on the indicator. The second factor is surging inflation, because of which manufacturers had to revise their deliveries and new orders. The Capacity Utilization Rate went from 77.0% in November to 76.5% in December. This confirms the slowdown in production. The US is celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day today, that’s why EURUSD may be less active than usual.
