Investing.com - The euro was slightly lower against the dollar on Monday after data on private sector activity in the euro zone indicated that the economic recovery could be losing momentum.
EUR/USD touched session lows of 1.3564 and was last down 0.11% to 1.3584.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.3540 and resistance at 1.3642, the high of June 19.
The euro zone’s composite index of service and manufacturing sector activity fell to a six month low of 52.8 in June from 53.5 in May.
France’s private sector continued to contract this month, dragging on the euro zone as a whole, while Germany private sector continued to expand this month, but at a slower than forecast rate.
The French manufacturing PMI tumbled to a six-month low of 47.8, down from 49.6 in May, while the service sector PMI fell to a four-month low of 48.2 from 49.1
Germany’s manufacturing PMI ticked up to a two-month high of 52.4 from 52.3 in May.
The country’s services PMI declined to a two-month low of 54.8 from 56.0 in May, but remained well above the 50 level that separates growth from contraction.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said over the weekend that interest rates would stay low over a longer period. He added that large-scale asset purchases are still part of the central bank's toolkit but it would need to see inflation expectations deteriorate before embarking on quantitative easing.
The ECB cut interest rates to record lows and launched a series of measures to boost lending to companies earlier this month, in a bid to stave off the threat of deflation in the euro area and shore up the recovery.
The shared currency fell to session lows against the yen, with EUR/JPY down 0.29% to 138.42.
Elsewhere Monday, EUR/GBP slid 0.10% to 0.7984, not far from the more than one-and-a-half year low of 0.7958 reached last Monday.