RTTN: US Dollar Extends Weakness Against European Majors After PPI Data
During early New York trading on Friday, the US dollar extended its European session's weakness against major oponents after the release of producer price index data.
According to a report released by the Labor Department today, producer price index rose by 1.1 percent in September after jumping 1.7 percent in August. Economists had expected the index to increase by about 0.8 percent.
Excluding the jump in energy prices and a modest increase in food prices, the core producer price index was unchanged in September.
The core producer price index had been expected to edge up by 0.2 percent, which would have matched the increase seen in the previous month.
The greenback was trading near fresh multi-day lows of 0.9308 against the Swiss franc, 1.2990 versus the euro and 1.6099 against the British pound in New York morning, compared to yesterday's closing values of 0.9352, 1.2928 and 1.6047, respectively.
In early European session today, the IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde called for less austerity and greater global economic cooperation as key drive for a strong path to recovery.
While speaking at the plenary session of the IMF-World Bank 2012 Annual Meetings in Tokyo, Lagarde said top priority was for the world to get beyond the current crisis and to restore sufficient growth to generate jobs for the millions of unemployed.
In economic front, the latest report released by the Eurostat, Eurozone industrial production grew unexpectedly by 0.6 percent month-on-month in August, the same rate of expansion as seen in July. Production was forecast to fall by 0.4 percent.
Meanwhile, industrial production dropped 2.9 percent on a yearly basis, following a 2.8 percent fall in July. Economists had forecast a 4.1 percent decrease for August.
The final data released by statistical office Istat today showed that Italy's EU harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) increased 3.4 percent on an annual basis in September, in line with the preliminary estimates. In August, the rate of growth was 3.3 percent.
Against its Japanese counterpart, the greenback also showed weakness in North American morning session and presently trading near 78.35 from early Asian session's high of 78.54.
The preliminary report of Reuters/University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index for October is set to release by about 9:55 am ET.
