Forex - Political uncertainty, NFP anticipation push EUR/USD lower

Investing.com - The euro traded lower against the greenback for the fifth straight session Friday, as trader’s anticipate a positive U.S. nonfarm payroll number later in the session and elections in France and Greece weigh on the single currency.

EUR/USD traded at 1.3134, down 0.14% after hitting a high of 1.3162 and a low of 1.3122 earlier in the session.

The pair was likely to find support at 1.3096, Thursday’s low, and resistance at 1.3284, Tuesday’s high.

All eyes are on the U.S. nonfarm payrolls set for later in the session.
Economists are projecting that U.S. employers added 160,000 jobs last month with the jobless rate holding at a three year low of 8.2%

Normura Securities stated, “It’s a battle between U.S. dollar weakness and euro weakness, which is the reason the euro is so stuck. The payrolls may be around 200,000 and that would help drive the dollar index up to about 79.8.”

Adding to the uncertainty, France and Greece will hold elections over the weekend.

French voters will decide on the final round of the countries presidential race and Greece will be voting on a new parliament.

Francois Hollande, the Socialist challenger for the French highest office, is the leading incumbent. He is calling for a re-negotiation of the budget pact with European leaders, saying it needs to place more of an emphasis on growth. He has rejected Sarkozy’s plan to increase sales taxes to fund lower payroll charges.

Meanwhile in Greece, neither of the two major political parties, New Democracy and Socialist Pasok is likely to win the majority.

However, in euro zone positive news,  retail sales in Switzerland rose more-than-expected last month, official data showed on Friday.

In a report, the Federal Statistics Bureau said that retail sales rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.2%, from 0.8% in the preceding month.

Analysts had expected retail sales to rise to 1.2% last month.

The euro was trading close to a fresh 22-month low against the pound with EUR/GBP giving back 0.24%, to hit 0.8112.