EURUSD Falls As Euro Extends Its Rally Against the US Dollar

The EURUSD currency pair fell for the fourth consecutive session as the single currency continued to gain ground against the US dollar. The single currency struggled to hold on to its gains against the greenback as the dollar was relatively strong against most of its peers, as tracked by the US Dollar Index.

The release of upbeat German trade balance data earlier today bolstered the euro. The data showed that Germany’s economy had a positive trade surplus of €17.8 billion, beating analysts’ expectations of €17.1 billion. The positive German data buoyed the single currency, given that the country is the largest eurozone economy.

The US dollar was making gains against most of its peers apart from the euro and the Sterling pound as the Dollar Index was up 21.8 pips (0.21%) at writing. The dollar’s underlying strength was fueled by the positive yield differential between US Treasuries and other countries with lower rates.

Investors are attracted to US government bonds and bills due to their higher yields than bonds from other major economies, such as Japan, which still has negative interest rates. Still, the euro’s gains against the much more dominant US dollar were impressive.

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The economic calendar was pretty light today, with other news releases from the eurozone, such as the Spanish unemployment change report, indicating that the unemployment rate fell to -24,600 jobs, beating analysts’ estimates of 28,100 jobs.

Investors were looking forward to speeches from European Central Bank (ECB) policymakers led by ECB Governor Christine Lagarde, who was about to start speaking at the time of publishing.

The ECB Governor’s speech will likely impact the EURUSD currency pair going forward as investors will be looking for clues as to the central bank’s next move regarding interest rates.