USD Closed up Despite Weaker U.S. Home Sales Data

USD index rose against the basket of six major currencies to end Monday’s trading session in the green territory at 94.40 despite downbeat U.S. home sales data.

The monthly U.S. Home Sales data came in below the expectations at -0.6 percent reaching 5.44 million units, while the analyst were expecting an increase of 0.6 percent. The Chief Economist of NAR said on Monday that “The root cause is without a doubt the severe housing shortage that is not releasing its grip on the nation’s housing market.”

In Europe, the Euro and the British Pound both were pressured by the stronger U.S. Dollar as both fell against the Greenback to end the session on negative notes 1.16915 EURUSD and 1.30988 GBPUSD respectively.

In terms of safe-havens, the Japanese yen rose against the U.S. Dollar after the BOJ announced that it may shrink its QA Program to make it more sustainable. The U.S Dollar dropped against the Japanese Yen and Swiss Franc to end the session in the red at 111.335 USDJPY and 0.99173 USDCHF respectively. Meanwhile, the prices of precious metal fell on Friday to close the session down at 1224.30 XAUUSD.

Elsewhere in Canada, the Loonie dropped against its U.S. counterpart on the back of the decline in oil prices where USDCAD close the session up at 1.31709 while oil prices declined to end the session in the red at $67.58 a barrel.

In economic news, the Canadian Monthly Wholesale Sales data has beaten the expectations of an increase of 0.1 percent as it rose from 0.1 percent to 1.2 percent during May.

In Asia, the Aussie and Kiwi dropped against their U.S. counterpart to end Friday’s trading session on negative notes at 0.73791 AUDUSD and 0.67829 NZDUSD respectively.

Regarding Cryptos, the Bitcoin rose against the U.S. Dollar to finish up at 7677.81 BTCUSD, however Litecoin and Ethereum both declined against the Greenback to close lower at 80.01 LTCUSD and 445.04 ETHUSD respectively.