US Dollar Index weakened on Friday following lower than expected Retail Sales figures for the month of August. Binary options traders might have been profiting along the way down, since the price moved lower by 80 pips. There had also been new rising tensions, triggered by a new missile launch over Japan by North Korea, which raised again concerns that the situation might escalate again further.
August Retail Sales MoM down to -0.2%
Even though the market expectations were around 0.1%, the actual figures turned out to be much worse, at -0.2%. Also, the July numbers had been revised lower, from 0.6% to 0.3%, adding extra pressure on the US dollar index quote.
Source: www.fxstreet.com
Looking at out chart above, you can see that the Retail Sales are in a downtrend since the start of the year, as each low had been followed by a swing high and then a lower low. This suggests a weakening in the underlying numbers and also that the numbers could continue to underperform in the upcoming months.
Binary options activity might be intense around 91.80 and 92.26 resistance levels, since they represent strong selling areas where sellers might react pretty strongly. If the price will continue to weaken further, it might head towards 90.84 support, where the recent upward leg started to build up.
So far, there are no positive news that could support the upside and we expect the downside to extend lower as long as pressure will continue to mount. We also have the Fed meeting this week and investors might look for new hints regarding a new rate hike until the end of the year and also, a guide regarding the reduction of the Fed balance sheet.
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