Investing.com – USD/JPY fluctuated between small gains and losses during Asian morning trade on Monday after hitting three week high on Friday despite weaker-than-expected data on existing U.S. home sales.
In China, the National Bureau of Statistics will release January House Price Index at 0930 local time (0130 GMT). The index rose 9.9% in December.
In New Zealand, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will release the credit card spending data for January at 0300 local time (0200 GMT). In December, spending increased by 4.7%.
USD/JPY traded up 0.09% at 102.60, AUD/USD fell 0.07% at 0.8971, while NSD/USD went down 0.01% at 0.8278.
On Friday it was reported that U.S. existing home sales fell by a larger-than-forecast 5.1% in January. The news came on the heels of a recent series of disappointing U.S. economic reports, which investors have attributed to severely cold winter weather.
Last Wednesday’s minutes of the Federal Reserve’s January meeting showed that officials agreed the current pace of reductions to the bank’s asset purchase program would remain unchanged, so long as the economy shows signs of improvement.
The U.S. central bank is currently purchasing $65 billion of assets per month.
In Europe, the Markit euro zone composite output index ticked down to a two month low of 52.7 this month, but remained close to January’s 31-month high of 52.9.
A modest pickup in euro zone service sector activity was offset by an easing the rate of manufacturing output. However, manufacturing activity continued to outperform services activity, due in large part to strong export demand from outside the euro area.
Germany’s composite output index rose to a 32-month high this month, but France’s composite index fell to a two-month low, as service sector activity declined at the fastest rate in nine months.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.01% to 80.29.
In the week ahead, the euro zone is to release what will be closely watched preliminary data on consumer price inflation on Friday. U.S. data on durable goods orders and consumer confidence will also be in focus.