Investing.com - The euro dropped over 1% to hit fresh 11-1/2 year lows against the U.S. dollar on Friday, as the release of strong U.S. employment data sent the greenback broadly higher.
EUR/USD hit lows of 1.0848 during U.S. morning trade; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.0857, down 1.55% for the day.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.0848 and resistance at 1.1116, Thursday's high.
The U.S. Department of Labor said the economy added 295,000 jobs last month, beating expectations for an increase of 240,000. January's figure was revised to a 239,000 gain from a previously estimated 257,000 increase.
The U.S. unemployment rate fell to a six-and-a-half year low of 5.5% in February from 5.7% the previous month, compared to expectations for a downtick to 5.6%.
U.S. average hourly earnings rose 0.1% in February, the report added, disappointing expectations for a 0.2% gain, after an increase of 0.5% in January.
A separate report showed that the U.S. trade deficit narrowed to $41.80 billion in January from $45.60 billion in December, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of $46.60 billion. Analysts had expected the trade deficit to narrow to $41.70 billion in January.
Meanwhile, the euro remained under pressure after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi confirmed on Thursday that the ECB will begin purchasing euro zone government bonds on March 9 under its new quantitative easing program.
The combined asset purchases will amount to €60 billion per month and are expected to run until September 2016, or until the ECB sees that inflation is on a “sustained path” to its target of close to, but below, 2% in the medium term.
The euro was also lower against the pound, with EUR/GBP declining 0.44% to 0.7204.