Investing.com - The euro remained moderately higher against the U.S. dollar on Monday, supported by hopes for progress on the Greek front and as a recent string of downbeat U.S. data continued to weigh on the greenback.
EUR/USD hit 1.1429 during European afternoon trade, the session high; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.1412, adding 0.18%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.1301, the low of February 12 and resistance at 1.1488, the high of February 6.
The euro strengthened mildly as Greece was due to resume negotiations with its euro zone partners later in the day after talks on a new debt deal last week ended without an agreement.
Greece’s current €240 billion bailout is due to expire on February 28 and the new Greek government does not want it extended, fuelling fears over a conflict with its creditors which could trigger the country’s exit from the euro zone.
On Sunday Athens said it was confident of reaching an agreement but reiterated it would not accept harsh austerity measures in any new deal.
Earlier Friday, official data showed that the euro zone's trade surplus widened to €24.3 billion in December from €21.2 billion in November, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated surplus of €20.0 billion.
Analysts had expected the trade surplus to hit €20.5 billion in December.
Meanwhile, sentiment on the dollar remained vulnerable after data on Friday showed that the preliminary reading of the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index fell to 93.6, down from January’s final reading of 98.1. Economists had forecast an unchanged figure.
The report came a day after data showing that U.S. retail sales unexpectedly fell 0.8% last month after dropping 0.9% in December, indicating that consumer spending remained sluggish at the start of the year.
The euro was also higher against the pound, with EUR/GBP rising 0.31% to 0.7420.