The U.S. dollar saw a mixed week with both economic releases and the broader market sentiment.

The week started off with China making the effort to ease back on the escalating trade wars as Xi, the Chinese Premier announced measures to make China’s markets more accessible.

Commodity prices gained as news report about tensions in the Middle-East and Syria pushed oil and gold prices higher.

The FOMC meeting minutes came out with a hawkish surprise but the minutes did not help to boost the U.S. dollar which quickly gave up the gains.

U.S. consumer prices fall but core CPI rises

The U.S. consumer price index for the month of March painted a mixed picture as headline inflation fell missing economists forecasts of an unchanged print.

On the other hand, core CPI was seen rising steadily matching the economists’ expectations.

The decline in the headline CPI was attributed to a rare decline in gasoline prices during the month of March.

Official data from the U.S. Labor department showed that headline CPI fell 0.1% on a month over month basis in March.

However, this still brought the annual CPI rate to 2.4% marking the highest level so far. The monthly decline in headline CPI was however the first decline since May 2017.

The core CPI which excludes the volatile food and energy prices were seen rising 0.2% on the month in March.

On an annual basis, core CPI edged higher to 2.1% compared to the same period a year ago. Both measures of inflation were seen above the Fed’s 2% inflation target rate.

However, given that the Federal Reserve targets the core PCE data, the data did not impact the markets much.

Still core PCE was seen at 1.6% while inflation was measured at 1.8% on the year.

The consumer price index data came after previously the producer prices index data showed strong gains.

Headline PPI rose 0.3% on a month over month basis, while core PPI increased 0.4% on the month. This brought the annual PPI to 3.0% and 2.7% respectively.

German exports decline at the fastest pace in two years

The latest trade balance figures from Germany showed a bleak picture as exports were seen falling at the fastest pace in over two years.

The decline in the exports and imports come amid global uncertainty and fears of a trade war after President Trump announced a series of measures to impose tariffs on various goods and especially goods from China.

According to the data from German statistics agency, exports fell 3.2% on a month over month basis in February.

The decline in February was the second consecutive month of declines in the exports and was also the largest pace of decline since August 2015.

German exports declined 6.1% during August 2015. Shipments which was forecast to rise 0.2% on the month partly offsetting the 0.4% declines from the month before.

Imports to Germany also declined on a month over month basis and fell for the second month in a row.

German imports fell 1.3% on the month extending the declines of 0.2% that was registered in January.

Economists had forecast that German imports would rise 0.5% and offset the declines from January.

Due to the decline in imports and exports, the German trade surplus decreased to a seasonally adjusted basis of 19.2 billion euro in February.

In January, German trade surplus was recorded at 21.5 billion euro.

On a year over year basis, exports eased from 8.6% to 2.4% in February while imports also slowed to 4.7% compared to January’s print of 6.9%.

Canada building permits decline in February

Building permits in Canada for the month of February posted sharp declines, falling 2.6% on the month, data from Statistics Canada showed last week.

The declines came after building permits increased just the month before.

Weak demand for single family homes and retail spaces were seen contributing to the decline during the month.

The total value of building permits issued by the Canadian municipalities fell to a seasonally adjusted basis of 8.17 billion Canadian dollars during the month.

Economists forecasted that building permits would fall 1.5% on the month.

Data for January was revised lower and showed that building permits rose 5.2% compared to the initial print of 5.6%. For February, building permits were seen rising 6.5%.