U.S. Dollar Gives Back Ground Following Recent Strength

(RTTNews) - After trending higher over the past several sessions, the value of the U.S. dollar has given back some ground during trading on Monday.

The U.S. dollar index is falling 0.56 points or 0.5 percent to 104.66 after reaching its highest levels in over two months last Friday.

Currently, the greenback is trading at 136.21 yen versus the 136.48 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Friday. Against the euro, the dollar is trading at $1.0608 compared to last Friday's $1.0548.

The dollar's retreat versus the euro partly reflects concerns about the outlook for European interest rates, with some traders pricing in a terminal rate of 3.9 percent next February.

"The king dollar trade might make a comeback, but many investors are expecting the ECB to deliver more rate hikes than all of its major trading partners," said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA.

The pullback by the dollar also came following the release of some mixed U.S. economic data, including a Commerce Department report showing a sharp pullback in new orders for durable goods in the month of January.

The report said durable goods orders plunged by 4.5 percent in January after surging by a downwardly revised 5.1 percent in December.

Economists had expected durable goods orders to tumble by 4.0 percent compared to the 5.6 percent spike that had been reported for the previous month.

The steep drop by durable goods orders came as orders for transportation equipment plummeted by 13.3 percent in January after soaring by 15.8 percent in December.

Excluding orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders climbed by 0.7 percent in January after falling by 0.4 percent in December. Economists had expected a 0.1 percent uptick.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors released a separate report showing pending home sales in the U.S. spiked by much more than expected in the month of January.

NAR said its pending home sales index soared by 8.1 percent to 82.5 in January after jumping by 1.1 percent to a downwardly revised 76.3 in December.

Economists had expected pending home sales to advance by 1.0 percent compared to the 2.5 percent surge originally reported for the previous month.