Investing.com - The euro traded higher against the U.S. dollar Thursday, despite the release of positive U.S. data, as profit taking hit the greenback after the strong move higher this week..
EUR/USD traded at 1.3090 during U.S. morning trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.3082 gaining 0.38% in afternoon trade.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.3004, the session low and the pair’s lowest since February 16 and resistance at 1.3158, the high of March 12.
Supporting the greenback, the Department of Labor said number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week dropped to a four-year low of 351,000, beating expectations for a decline to 356,000.
Offering more dollar positive news, separate reports showed that manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region expanded at a faster than forecast rate in March, rising to the highest level in 11 months, while manufacturing activity in New York improved unexpectedly, climbing to the highest level since June 2010.
Elsewhere, official data showed that U.S. producer price inflation rose slightly less-than-expected in February, increasing by a seasonally adjusted 0.4%, below expectations for a 0.5% gain, while core producer prices rose 0.2% last month, in line with expectations.
The data supported the view that the U.S. economic recovery is gathering momentum, after the Federal Reserve upgraded its outlook on the economy earlier this week, causing investors to lower expectations for a third round of quantitative easing.
The euro was higher against the pound, with EUR/GBP adding 0.13% to trade at 0.8324 but lower against the yen, with EUR/JPY easing down 0.09% to hit 109.91.
In the euro zone earlier, official data showed that the number of people employed in the region fell by 0.2% in the last three months of 2011 and also 0.2% year-on-year, meeting expectations.