(eToro Blog) With the Memorial Day weekend which heralds the arrival of summer now a mere memory, market players will refocus their attention on the U.S. economy.

Earlier, the results of the Conference Board's consumer confidence survey were released as well as the Chicago Purchasing Manager's Index. Analysts believe that those results will set the course for Wall Street today and are likely to be the dominant force in U.S. Dollar sentiment.

Last week, the U.S. economy's recovery appeared to falter; GDP growth was unexpectedly unchanged from earlier estimates and inflation effectively stymied consumer spending. Even in spite of the recent soft data, a consensus of analysts were predicting that today's Index would show that consumer confidence sentiment was likely to have edged slightly higher to 66.0. With the American economy so heavily reliant on the U.S. consumer, that information is critical to assessing the likelihood of the recovery regaining momentum.

The actual release came in far worse than expected at 60.8, suggesting that consumers are not at all confident in their economic future.

Analysts also expected the Purchasing Manager's Index to fall, predicting a decline to 63.0 from the previous 67.6. However, the actual data was far worse than expected at 56.6.

While the manufacturing sector was one of the earliest to emerge from the recession, it appears that the pace of the economic recovery is now weighing on the sector's recovery.

With both manufacturing and consumer sentient pointing on slowdown the Dollar gained momentum amid safe haven inflows although and US indices slided lower.

The Dow fell from 12540 to 12500 shedding 40 points and the S&P500 fell from 1343 to 1,337. However both indices are still on the green for the day and are expected to rebound as Dollar weakness is expected as risk aversion will fade and invetors will focus on US relative weakness to European economies.

Until later in the week when non-farms payroll data is released, markets will key off of today's reports. The U.S. Dollar has been under significant pressure over the past several trading sessions and is broadly lower.

Traders of EUR/USD on the eToro trading floor are favoring selling over buying by a 17 to 5 ratio.

Sentiment among eToro's AUD/USD traders is in favor of buying with 5 buyers to 1 seller.

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