Investing.com - The euro pared losses against the dollar on Monday after data showed that U.S. industrial production unexpectedly fell in August, overshadowing an earlier report showing that manufacturing activity in the New York region jumped to an almost five year high this month.
EUR/USD was last down 0.18% to 1.2941, off session lows of 1.2909.
The pair was likely to find support at the 1.2875 level and resistance at around 1.2980.
The dollar slipped after official data showed that U.S. manufacturing activity fell 0.4% in August as motor vehicle output dropped sharply.
Excluding automobiles, manufacturing production was up 0.1% in August. The report showed that factory output was up 4.6% on a year-over-year basis, pointing to underlying strength in the sector.
A report earlier Monday showed that the Empire State manufacturing index jumped to 27.5 from 14.7 in August, the highest reading since October 2009. Economists had expected the index to tick up to 16.0.
Demand for the dollar continued to remain underpinned ahead of the upcoming Federal Reserve policy meeting on Wednesday, amid mounting expectations for an early hike in U.S. interest rates.
The Fed was expected to cut its asset purchase program by another $10 billion on Wednesday, which would keep it on track for winding up the program in October, and to start raising interest rates sometime in mid-2015.
In contrast, the European Central Bank cut rates to record lows across the euro zone earlier this month and unveiled new easing measures in a bid to shore up inflation in the euro area.
Elsewhere, the dollar slipped lower against the yen following the mixed economic data, but remained supported close to more than six year highs.
USD/JPY hit session lows of 107.01 before pulling back to 107.11, not far from Friday’s peaks of 107.38.