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Forex - Euro little changed against dollar

Published 05/05/2014, 05:37 AM
Euro steady against dollar in thin trade
EUR/USD
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EUR/JPY
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Investing.com - The euro was almost unchanged against the dollar on Monday as trade volumes remained thin, with markets in the U.K. closed for a public holiday.

EUR/USD was trading at 1.3873, not far from the three-week peak of 1.3888 reached last Thursday.

The pair was likely to find support at 1.3850 and resistance at 1.3888.

The single currency shrugged off data showing that the Sentix index of euro zone investor confidence deteriorated unexpectedly this month, falling to 12.8 from a reading of 14.1 in April. Analysts had forecast an increase to 14.2.

A separate report showed that producer prices in the euro zone fell 0.2% in March from a month earlier, and were down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis.

Also Monday, the European Commission said it expects the region’s economy to continue to recover through 2015, but warned that persistently low levels of inflation and geopolitical tensions with Russia could threaten the recovery.

The EC said the euro zone’s economy will expand 1.2% this year, unchanged from its February forecast and grow 1.7% in 2015, down slightly from 1.8% previously.

The commission cut its forecast for euro zone inflation to 0.8% this year and 1.2% in 2015, down from 1.0% and 1.3% in February.

The dollar remained under pressure after giving up gains late Friday sparked by a far stronger-than-forecast U.S. jobs report.

The dollar initially strengthened after official data showed that the U.S. economy added 288,000 jobs in April, well above expectations for jobs growth of 210,000, while the unemployment rate dropped to a five-and-a-half year low of 6.3%.

However, the report also showed that the labor force participation rate, which measures the proportion of people either working or looking for work, fell and wage growth weakened.

Elsewhere, the euro was lower against the firmer yen, with EUR/JPY trading at 141.44, down from 141.71 on Friday.

The safe haven yen was boosted after the final reading of China’s HSBC manufacturing purchasing managers’ index came in at 48.1, down from a preliminary estimate of 48.3 and missing forecasts for an uptick to 48.4. A reading below 50 indicates a contraction.

The disappointing data added to concerns that an economic slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy is deepening.

Investors were also eying events in Ukraine, after conflict between the government and pro-Russian separatists grew more widespread over the weekend.

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