Forexpros – The euro fell to a 12-day low against the yen on Wednesday, as sentiment waned after weak U.S. employment data and a string of disappointing euro zone reports added to concerns over the region’s financial woes.
EUR/JPY hit 105.14 during European afternoon trade, the pair’s lowest since April 16; the pair subsequently consolidated at 105.28, dropping 0.70%.
The pair was likely to find support at 104.61, the low of April 16 and a one-month low and resistance at 106.54, the day’s high.
U.S. payroll processing firm ADP said that non-farm employment rose by 119,000 in April, the lowest increase since September 2011, after a 201,000 rise the previous month. Analysts had expected non-farm employment to rise by 178,000 in April.
The single currency came under pressure earlier after the final euro zone manufacturing data for April came in weaker-than-expected, with the manufacturing purchasing managers’ index slumping to a 34-month low of 45.9 in April, down from 47.7 in March and below the preliminary estimate of 46.0.
German manufacturing output fell at the fastest rate since July 2009, with its manufacturing PMI tumbling to 46.2, from 48.4 in March, while a separate report showed that the German unemployment rate also rose last month.
A separate report showed that the unemployment rate in the euro zone rose to a fresh record high of 10.9% in March.
In Italy, official data showed that the unemployment rate unexpectedly jumped to 9.8% for March, the highest level since the current index began in 2004, from 9.3% the previous month.
Elsewhere, the yen was fractionally lower against the U.S. dollar with USD/JPY edging up 0.09%, to hit 80.16.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to produce government data on factory orders and crude oil stockpiles.
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