Investing.com - The euro declined against the U.S. dollar on Friday, as demand for the greenback remained supported by the previous session's U.S. jobless claims report and as markets eyed the upcoming report on U.S. nonfarm payrolls.
EUR/USD hit 1.1182 during European afternoon trade, the pair's lowest since May 5; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.1216, sliding 0.47%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.1065, the low of May 5 and resistance at 1.1392, Thursday's high.
The dollar remained supported after the U.S. Department of Labor reported on Thursday that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending May 2 rose by 3,000 to 265,000 from the previous week's total of 262,000.
Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to rise by 18,000 to 280,000 last week.
Investors were now looking ahead to Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for further indications on the strength of the U.S. job market.
In the euro zone, official data earlier showed that German industrial production fell 0.5% in March, confounding expectations for a 0.4% rise, after an uptick of 0.2% the previous month.
A separate report showed that Germany's trade surplus narrowed to €19.3 billion in March from €20.0 billion in February, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated surplus of €19.7 billion.
Analysts had expected the trade surplus to hit €20.0 billion in March.
The euro was sharply lower against the pound, with EUR/GBP tumbling 1.48% to 0.7279.
The pound strengthened broadly after the Conservatives won more than half the seats in the Parliament on Thursday, outnumbering Labour and allowing David Cameron to end a coalition with the Liberal Democrats and govern alone.
Also Friday, industry data showed that U.K. house prices rose 1.6% last month, exceeding expectations for a 0.4% gain. March's figure was revised to an increase of 0.6% from a previously estimated 0.4% rise.
Separately, the Office for National Statistics said that the U.K. trade deficit narrowed to £10.12 billion in March from £10.80 billion, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of £10.34 billion. Analysts had expected the trade deficit to narrow to £9.80 billion in March.