Investing.com - The euro was steady close to one-week highs against the dollar on Monday, as Friday’s unexpectedly weak U.S. nonfarm payrolls report continued to weigh on the greenback.
EUR/USD hit highs of 1.3683 and was last trading at 1.3667, unchanged for the day.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.3600 and near-term resistance at 1.3686, Friday’s high and the strongest since January 2.
The dollar remained under pressure amid expectations that Friday’s nonfarm payrolls data would prompt the Federal Reserve to maintain loose monetary policy for some time to come.
The U.S. economy added 74,000 jobs in December, the smallest increase since January 2011 and well below expectations for 196,000 new jobs.
The unemployment rate fell to a five year low of 6.7% from 7% in November, but this was due in part to people dropping out of the labor force.
The weak data sparked concerns that the Fed will adopt a more cautious approach to scaling back its stimulus program, after cutting it by USD10 billion in December, reducing it to USD75 billion-a-month.
In the euro zone, data released on Monday showed that Italian industrial output rose for a third consecutive in November, up 0.3% from a month earlier.
Meanwhile, Italian borrowing costs fell to the lowest level since the creation of the euro on Monday, as investors continued to regain confidence in the euro zone periphery. Italy’s treasury auctioned EUR4 billion of three-year bonds at a yield of 1.51%, down from 1.79% at a similar sale in November.
Elsewhere, the euro fell to three-week lows against the stronger yen but pushed higher against the pound. EUR/JPY fell to lows of 141.14, the lowest since December 17 and was last down 0.65% to 141.47. EUR/GBP was up 0.28% to 0.8316.