Forexpros – The euro traded lower against the U.S. dollar Wednesday as weaker than expected U.S. housing data and general risk aversion fuelled the greenback.
EUR/USD hit 1.3201 during U.S. afternoon trade, down 0.17%. It hit a low of 1.3179 and a high of 1.3285 during the session.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.3048, the low of March 16 and resistance at 1.3284, the session high and a nine-day high.
The greenback weakened against the euro after the National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales gave back 0.9% to a seasonally adjusted 4.59 million units in February, compared to expectations for a decline to 4.61 million units.
The figure is 8.8% higher than the 4.22 million-unit level in February 2011.
Existing home sales in January was revised down by nearly 1.5% to 4.63 million units from a previously reported 4.57 million.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, stated underlying factors are much better compared to one year ago,
“The market is trending up unevenly, with record high consumer buying power and sustained job gains giving buyers the confidence they need to get into the market,”.His words added dollar bullish sentiment to the negative numbers.
In Greece, former Deputy Finance Minister Filippos Sachinidis was sworn in as the country’s new finance minister.
On Tuesday, Greece repaid EUR14.5 billion in maturing debt, just one day after receiving the first tranche of aid, under the terms of its second bailout.
Germany and Portugal sold bonds at an auction today helping to ease slowdown fears.
Meanwhile, worries persist that Japan will move to boost stimulus having far reaching economic consequences.
Elsewhere, the euro was fractionally lower against the pound, with EUR/GBP dipping 0.07% to hit 0.8330.
In other news Wednesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke discussing the lessons from the debt crisis in the euro zone before the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform, in Washington.
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