14.08.201714:18 Forex Analysis & Reviews: Euro falls on weak production data

In the first half of the day, the European currency was under pressure in tandem with the US dollar after the release of weak data indicating a decline in industrial production.

Given that no new fundamental statistics are expected today, traders and investors will closely monitor the situation between the US and North Korea. If the relationship between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un does not continue to worsen, then, the economic data that will begin to emerge from Tuesday of this week will be more important.

According to the report of the statistics agency, the reduction in activity in industrial enterprises of the eurozone led to a drop in industrial production. Thus, the industrial production of the eurozone in June this year fell by 0.6% compared with May. Compared to the same period in 2016, industrial production grew by 2.6%. Economists had expected production to fall by only 0.4%.

As for the technical picture of the EUR/USD pair, the unsuccessful attempt to grow the euro above Friday's highs along with the fundamental data, resulted in a sell-off which led the trading instrument to the first intermediate level of support around 1.1790. The breakthrough could collapse the euro already to a larger level of 1.1750.

The commodity currencies also slipped slightly against the US dollar after it became known that the topics of growth in industrial production in China in July this year slowed down after strong growth in June.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, industrial production in China in July 2017 increased by 6.4% compared with the same period last year after rising by 7.6% in June. Economists had expected that in July the growth would exceed 7.0%. Compared to the previous month, industrial production increased by 0.41%.

The growth rate of sales in the housing market in China slowed in July. According to the data, sales grew by only 4.3% compared to the same period of the previous year after growth of 26.4% in June.

Apparently, China is beginning a trade war with North Korea. Today it became known that the Chinese Ministry of Trade will ban the import of certain North Korean goods. The prohibition will include coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood. The ministry said that the ban comes into force from tomorrow.

Most likely, this is the position of the Chinese authorities trying to demonstrate to the North Korean leader their attitude to their conflict with the US, which has already passed all the permissible limits.

It is possible that restrictive measures will force the North Korean government to reduce its tone of statements against the US, since in the event of a military conflict, it is unlikely that China will take sides.