Investing.com - The euro remained lower against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, as strong U.S. economic reports lent support to the greenback and as growing worries over the Ebola virus dampened market sentiment.
EUR/USD hit 1.2706 during U.S. morning trade, the session low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.2744, retreating 0.71%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.2623, Wednesday's low and resistance at 1.2886, Wednesday's high and a three-week high.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending October 11 decreased by 23,000 to 264,000 from the previous week’s total of 287,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 3,000 to 290,000 last week.
A separate report showed that U.S. industrial production climbed 1.0% last month, beating expectations for a 0.4% rise. August's figure was revised to a 0.2% slip from a previously estimated 0.1% downtick.
In addition, the Federal Reserve of Philadelphia said its manufacturing index fell to 20.7 this month from a reading of 22.5 in September. Analysts had expected the index to decline to 20.0 in October.
Demand for the safe-haven U.S. dollar also found support after U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that the country's Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would send rapid response teams to any new suspected Ebola cases in the U.S.
Mr. Obama's comments came after the infection of a second Texas health care worker.
In the euro zone, revised data earlier showed that euro zone consumer price inflation remained at 0.3% in September, in line with expectations.
Core CPI, which excludes food, energy, alcohol, and tobacco, ticked up to 0.8% last month from an initial estimate of 0.7%.
But the single currency remained fragile after data on Tuesday showed that the euro zone's industrial production declined more than expected in August, while a separate report showed that German economic sentiment deteriorated to the lowest level since December 2012 in October.
The euro was also lower against the pound, with EUR/GBP declining 0.65% to 0.7964.