The US Philly Fed Index Rises to 12.5. Early expectations stood on a rise from 10.2 to 11.9 points.
This is a small positive surprise, and joins other positive US figures released earlier.
The Philly Fed Manufacturing Index is a very fresh indicator – for the current month of March, making it of high importance.
The employment component in this indicator, which dropped to only 1.1 points last month, is on the rise again, to 6.8 points. On the other hand, new orders slid to 3.3 from 11.7. This is the strongest figure in 11 months.
Earlier, Â US jobless claims returned to lower levels, and dropped from 465K last week (revised) to 351K this time. Early expectations were for a smaller slide to 357K.
The Empire State Manufacturing Index, an indicator released by the Fed regarding the region of New York, surprised with a rise from 19.5 to 20.2 points. A drop to 17.6 points was predicted. It served as a warm up to the Philly Fed Index, which is more important.
TIC Long-Term Purchases printed 101 billion, much higher than around 40 billion that was expected. This means that a lot of cash found its way to the US.
Producer prices rose by 0.4%, a bit under expectations for a rise of 0.5%. Core PPI rose by 0.2%, as expected.
EUR/USD has been trading in a relatively narrow range in recent days: 1.30 to 1.3080, within a downtrend range. Lower support is at 1.2945. Higher resistance is at 1.3150.
For more on the euro, see the euro to dollar forecast.
