2019.12.2321:19:00UTC+00Dollar Retreats After Early Gains

After exhibiting some strength earlier in the session on Monday thanks to a batch of impressive economic data released last Friday, the dollar retreated and slipped into negative territory by mid morning.

The dollar's movements after that retreat was extremely sluggish. The dollar index, which eased to 97.60 from a high of 97.82, was last seen at 97.57, down slightly from previous close.

Against the Euro, the dollar was trading at $1.1091, down by about 0.12% from previous close.

The Pound Sterling retreated $1.2936, after advancing to $1.3031, while the Japanese Yen was marginally stronger at 109.39 a dollar.

Against the Aussie, the dollar shed about 0.32% at 0.6922.

The dollar weak against Swiss franc and the loonie, with the respective pairs going down by 0.12% and 0.1%, to 0.9816 and 1.3149.

Data from Statistics Canada showed that GDP fell 0.1% on a seasonally adjusted monthly basis after rising 0.1% in the previous month. The rate was forecast to be flat.

In economic news, data released by the Commerce Department showed an unexpected slump in new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods in the month of November.

The report said durable goods orders plunged by 2% in November after edging up by a downwardly revised 0.2% in October.

Economists had expected durable goods orders to jump by 1.5% compared to the 0.5% increase that had been reported for the previous month.

Another report released by the Commerce Department showed a significant increase in U.S. new home sales in the month of November. The report said new home sales jumped by 1.3% to an annual rate of 719,000 after plunging by 2.7% to a revised rate of 710,000 in October.

Economists had expected new home sales to inch up by 0.1% to 734,000 from the 733,000 originally reported for the previous month.

On the trade front, U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday said the United States and China would "very shortly" sign their so-called Phase One trade pact.

Trump also said that China already started large scale purchases of ?.S. farm goods and that the talks with the country were productive.