EURUSD is confused. Overview for 17.01.2020

On Friday, the major currency pair can’t decide where to move; this week has been pretty nervous. 

EURUSD is looking neutral on Friday, but every day this week it was trading differently as investors couldn’t decide on the same direction. The current quote for the instrument is 1.1134.

The statistics published yesterday showed that the Retail Sales in the USA added 0.3% m/m in December, the same as expected and the November reading. The components of the report show that sales rebounded for food and drinks, clothes, and electronics and appliances and rose faster for gasoline. In contrast, sales of motor vehicles declined. The Core Retail Sales showed +0.7 m/m in December after showing no changes in the previous month and against the expected reading of +0.5% m/m. 

The Import Prices added 0.3% m/m in December and matched market expectations. 

The weekly report on the Unemployment Claims in the USA showed 204K, which is less than 214K the week before. It’s a good piece of news: the labor market is slowly recovering after Christmas and New Year holidays.