Forexpros – The euro traded lower against the U.S. dollar Thursday as mixed U.S economic data and Spanish debt fears continued the safety flight to the greenback.
EUR/USD hit 1.3253 during U.S. morning trade, the pair’s lowest since March 26; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.3265 in afternoon trade, giving back 0.38%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.3191, the low of March 26 and resistance at 1.3344, the session high.
Starting the flight to greenback safety, the Department of Labor reported the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the U.S. dropped by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 359,000 last week, the lowest level since April 2008, but less than expectations for a decline to 350,000.
The previous week’s figure was revised up to 364,000 from 348,000.
A separate report showed that the U.S. economy grew by 0.3% during the final three months of 2011, unchanged from a preliminary estimate.
Sentiment on the euro remained negative due to concerns over high Spanish borrowing costs prior to the government’s budget statement on Friday. Fears are rampant that the government will bow to public pressure not to institute needed austerity measures to prevent an economic crisis.
In other news, official data indicated that the number of unemployed in Germany dropped more than expected in March, while the country’s jobless rate fell to a record low of 6.7%, indicating that the region’s largest economy is surviving the euro zone debt crisis.
Meanwhile, investors anticipate a meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Friday with expectations that they would agree on a larger debt firewall to combat the debt crisis in the region.
The euro was lower against the pound, with EUR/GBP falling 0.49% to hit 0.8341 and was sharply lower against the yen, with EUR/JPY giving back 1.07% to hit 109.22.
&nb
Forexpros
