Investing.com - The euro eased off seven-month lows against the U.S. dollar on Friday, after the release of disappointing U.S. consumer sentiment data, although concerns over geopolitical tensions in Ukraine and the Middle East continued to dampen risk sentiment.
EUR/USD pulled away from 1.3491, the pair's lowest since January, to hit 1.3513 during U.S. morning trade, still down 0.09%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.3478 and resistance at 1.3540, Thursday's high.
In a report, the University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index fell to a four-month low of 81.3 this month, from a reading of 82.5 in June, confounding expectations for rise to 83.0.
Sentiment was hit earlier, after a Malaysian Airlines passenger jet crashed in eastern Ukraine overnight Thursday. All 298 people on board were killed, sharply raising the stakes in a conflict between Kiev and pro-Moscow rebels in which Russia and the West back opposing sides.
The crash came a day after the U.S. and the European Union announced a fresh round of sanctions against Russia, following the annexation of Crimea in April and ongoing tensions in the rest of Ukraine. The U.S. package was the largest round of penalties so far.
Markets were also jittery after Israel announced late Thursday the start of a ground campaign in Gaza after 10 days of aerial and naval bombardments failed to stop Palestinian rocket attacks.
The euro was fractionally higher against the pound, with EUR/GBP edging up 0.11% to 0.7918.