EUR/USD falters on Friday, backsliding into 1.05

• EUR/USD sees continued selling pressure into the week’s end, tapping the 1.0500 major level.
• European Industrial Production figures came in mixed, and the ECB’s Lagarde reaffirmed a tight policy stance.
• A miss for US consumer sentiment is capping upside gains for the US Dollar, limiting Euro losses.

The EUR/USD pinged 1.0500 in Friday’s downside push, with European production figures spreading to the middle, and the European Central Bank’s (ECB) President Christine Lagarde reaffirmed the ECB’s tight monetary policy stance until inflation achieves the central bank’s 2% target.

Lagarde speech: There is more policy lag in pipeline from past hikes

European Industrial Production came in mixed early Friday; month-over-month Industrial Production for August clocked in at 0.6%, a healthy gain over the forecast 0.1% and a firm bounce against the previous reading of -1.1%, but the annualized figure broadly missed the mark, printing at -5.5% versus the forecast -3.5% and extending the backslide from the last print of -2.2%.

The Euro (EUR) has softened against the US Dollar (USD), but a downside miss for the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index is limiting downside for the EUR/USD. Consumer sentiment came in at just 63, below the forecast 67.4 and steepening the drop from the previous 68.1.

With the Euro dropping into the 1.05 handle, investors will be turning their eyes to the US Retail Sales data slated to drop next Tuesday at 12:30 GMT.

EUR/USD Technical Outlook

Intraday action has the EUR/USD accelerating away from the 200-hour Simple Moving Average (SMA) after failing to stage a rebound into the 1.0550 region, and the pair is set to close out the trading week within twenty pips of last week’s swing low into 1.0482.

On the daily candles, the EUR/USD is getting rejected from a descending trendline, and facing further bearish momentum after failing to capture the 1.0600 handle. The pair remains firmly bearish, with the 50-day SMA declining past 1.0750, and the Euro remains down almost 7% from July’s peak of 1.1275.

EUR/USD Hourly Chart

EUR/USD Daily Chart

EUR/USD Technical Levels