Investing.com - The euro trimmed gains against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, pulling back from a two-week high as the single currency remained vulnerable as investors eyed the outcome of fresh negotiations aimed at restructuring Greece’s debts.
EUR/USD pulled back from 1.2926, the pair’s highest since January 5, to hit 1.2887 during U.S. morning trade, still up 0.17% on the day.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.2733, Wednesday’s low and short-term resistance 1.2946, the high of January 5.
The euro found support earlier after auctions of Spanish and French government debt met with solid investor demand and broadly lower yields.
Spain auctioned more than the targeted amount of medium and long term debt, selling EUR6.6 billion of bonds.
The yield on the four-year bond was 4%, up from 3.9% at the last auction, while yields on the nine and 10-year bond were lower, at 4.5%, down from 5.1% at the previous auction, and 5.4% respectively, against 6.98% in December.
But investors remained jittery as talks between Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and the country’s creditors continued, after breaking down last week amid disagreements over how much money investors will lose by swapping their bonds.
In the U.S., official data showed that the number of people who filed for unemployment assistance last week declined unexpectedly, falling to the lowest level since April 2008.
The U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending January 13 fell to 352,000 from 402,000 the previous week. Analysts had expected U.S. jobless claims to fall to 385,000 last week.
Jobless claims have remained below 400,000, a level historically associated with an improving labor market, in ten of the past twelve weeks.
Elsewhere, data showed that manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia-region expanded at a slower rate than expected in January.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said that its manufacturing index slipped to 7.3 from 10.3 the previous month.
Analysts had expected the index to improve to 11.0.
The euro was fractionally higher against the pound, with EUR/GBP adding 0.04% to hit 0.8334.
Also Thursday, official data showed that U.S. consumer price inflation was flat in December. Meanwhile, U.S. building permits remained unchanged close to a 22-month high last month, while housing starts rose less-than-expected.
EUR/USD pulled back from 1.2926, the pair’s highest since January 5, to hit 1.2887 during U.S. morning trade, still up 0.17% on the day.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.2733, Wednesday’s low and short-term resistance 1.2946, the high of January 5.
The euro found support earlier after auctions of Spanish and French government debt met with solid investor demand and broadly lower yields.
Spain auctioned more than the targeted amount of medium and long term debt, selling EUR6.6 billion of bonds.
The yield on the four-year bond was 4%, up from 3.9% at the last auction, while yields on the nine and 10-year bond were lower, at 4.5%, down from 5.1% at the previous auction, and 5.4% respectively, against 6.98% in December.
But investors remained jittery as talks between Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and the country’s creditors continued, after breaking down last week amid disagreements over how much money investors will lose by swapping their bonds.
In the U.S., official data showed that the number of people who filed for unemployment assistance last week declined unexpectedly, falling to the lowest level since April 2008.
The U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending January 13 fell to 352,000 from 402,000 the previous week. Analysts had expected U.S. jobless claims to fall to 385,000 last week.
Jobless claims have remained below 400,000, a level historically associated with an improving labor market, in ten of the past twelve weeks.
Elsewhere, data showed that manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia-region expanded at a slower rate than expected in January.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said that its manufacturing index slipped to 7.3 from 10.3 the previous month.
Analysts had expected the index to improve to 11.0.
The euro was fractionally higher against the pound, with EUR/GBP adding 0.04% to hit 0.8334.
Also Thursday, official data showed that U.S. consumer price inflation was flat in December. Meanwhile, U.S. building permits remained unchanged close to a 22-month high last month, while housing starts rose less-than-expected.