BREAKING: USD gains after strong Conference Board reading

Conference Board consumer confidence index for December and US existing home sales data for November were released at 3:00 pm GMT, and were the only noteworthy US data readings scheduled for today. Conference Board index was expected to show a small improvement while home sales were seen a touch lower than a month ago.

Actual data showed headline Conference Board index coming in much above market expectations, with both Present Situation and Expectations subindices improving compared to a month ago. Also, existing home sales data turned out to be stronger than expected, with sales climbing 0.8% MoM instead of an expected 0.4% MoM drop.

Conference Board consumer confidence for December.

• Headline: 110.7 vs 104.0 expected (102.0 previously)
• Present Situation: 148.5 vs 138.2 previously
• Expectations: 85.6 vs 77.8 previously

Existing home sales for November: 3.82 million vs 3.78 million expected (3.79 million previously)

USD gained following better-than-expected US data, with EURUSD moving down around 0.1% in a knee-jerk move.

Source: xStation5