Euro is giving up its earlier gains against the US dollar today as better news out of the United States gives the greenback the edge. With the latest retail sales data, the US economy appears to be in a better place than the eurozone economy, and that means that the euro is losing ground to the dollar.
US retail sales increased 0.8 per cent in July, month over month. This represented a larger increase than expected. Many analysts had thought that retail sales would increase 0.3 per cent. Additionally, PPI rose 0.3 per cent, on track with expectations.
This news indicates that the US economy is growing — albeit slowly. However, even this slow growth puts the US dollar at an advantage against the euro. The eurozone economy continues to slide toward recession, and a solution to the problem of sovereign debt is not any closer to being realized.
After gaining earlier, the euro is now lower against the US dollar. Until a solution is found for the eurozone crisis, and until the economy starts to pick up in Europe, the euro is unlikely to show lasting strength against the US dollar.
At 15:12 GMT EUR/USD is down to 1.2326 from the open at 1.2333. EUR/GBP is down to 0.7857 from the open at 0.7862. EUR/JPY is up to 97.1740 from the open at 96.5800.
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