Forex Pros – The euro remained down against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, after official data showed that retail sales in the euro zone slumped in May, posting their biggest fall in a year.
EUR/USD hit 1.4460 during European early afternoon trade, the pair’s lowest since Friday; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.4466, shedding 0.50%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.4326, the low of June 29 and short-term resistance at 1.4577, Monday’s high and a one-month high.
Eurostat said the month-on-month volume of retail sales fell by 1.1% in May, with Germany reporting a fall of 2.8% and Portugal dropping 3.1%.
The May figure represents a fall of 1.9% from the same month last year.
The report said the sharp drop was largely due to a drop of 0.9% in the non-food sector, such as sales of electrical goods and clothing.
Analysts had forecast a 1% monthly fall and a 0.6% annual decline.
Meanwhile, ratings agency Moody’s said earlier that lenders who planned to rollover some of their Greek debt may have to take impairment charges on the original, unpaid bonds but the agency stopped short of saying that the plan would result in a default.
On Monday, ratings agency Standard and Poor’s said a plan by French lenders to rollover Greek debt would amount to a “selective default” if implemented.
The euro was also lower against the pound, with EUR/GBP shedding 0.63% to hit 0.8982.
Also Tuesday, data showed that the euro zone’s services sector grew less than initially projected in June, falling to an eight-month low.
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