The dollar wobbled on Tuesday after a report showing U.S. consumer confidence has deteriorated by more than expected in February amid concerns about the short-term outlook.
The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index fell to 78.1 in February from a downwardly revised 79.4 in January.
Economists had been expecting the index to edge down to 80.1 from the 80.7 originally reported for the previous month.
“US economic data has been surprising to the downside recently and more weakness in consumer confidence just adds to the near-term uncertainty.” said Peter Molloy, Founding Director at Edison Investment Research.
The dollar turned lower against the euro as traders digested that news, but managed to claw back most of those losses to finish fractionally weaker for the day.
At last check, the euro fetched $1.3748. The pair has been bouncing between $1.32 and $1.383 since September.
The buck also fought back versus the sterling, and was down only slightly for the day $1.6695.
There was little movement against the yen, with the buck edging a bit lower to Y102.15.
In economic news overseas, the German economy expanded moderately at the end of 2013, as initially estimated early this month, final data from Destatis showed.
Meanwhile, U.K. mortgage approvals increased more than expected to the highest since September 2007, data from British Bankers’ Association revealed.