The dollar is down for a second session, wiping out Tuesday's gains (the dollar index is down -0.4% at 104.33, after testing 104.95 48 hours earlier).
The euro is up +0.4% at $1.0765, which isn't necessarily self-evident given the day's news.
The dollar also lost 0.4% against the yen and the Canadian dollar, and the Swiss franc stood out with +0.65% to $0.88.

The euro remained stable against the yen and the southern currencies... which may come as a surprise given that Brussels experts have just lowered their growth forecasts for the Eurozone from +1.2% to +0.8% in 2024.
In France, Bercy has also abandoned its growth target of +1.4%.

The Dollar's decline is a little counter-intuitive with the publication of several US statistics which continue to surprise with their strength in most sectors.
The notable exception comes from retail sales, which clearly disappointed by falling more sharply than expected (-0.8%) in January.
But this was offset by all the other figures of the day: manufacturing activity recovered spectacularly in New York State in February, as the local Fed's 'Empire State' index climbed 41 points on January to stand at -2.4.

In the details of the survey, new orders fell slightly, while shipments rose slightly. Employment levels were little changed, while the average working week decreased.

The pace of input price rises accelerated for a second consecutive month, and that of selling prices also picked up. The six-month outlook improved, although optimism remained subdued.
The Philly Fed Index returned to positive territory with a gain of +16 points in February, reaching 5.2, the first positive reading since August.
However, only 27% of companies responding to the survey reported an increase in activity this month (but this is better than the 16% in December).
The employment sub-component fell by 9 points to -10.3 in February, its lowest level since May 2020.

The Commerce Department reports a 0.4% increase in US business inventories in December 2023 compared with the previous month, following a 0.1% decline in November (confirmed vs. initial estimate).
US business sales also rose by 0.4% sequentially in December.

New jobless claims fell (a figure closely watched by the FED): the Labor Department announced 212,000 new jobless claims in the US for the week ending February 5, down by 8,000 on the previous week's revised figure (220,000 instead of the 218,000 initially announced).

The four-week moving average - more representative of the underlying trend - came out at 218,500 for the same week, up 5,750 on the previous week's revised average.

The majority of markets still believe that the Fed will not cut rates before June, but the hypothesis of a cut as early as May does not seem totally ruled out (consensus at 40%) after today's statistics.

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