Investing.com - The euro fell to fresh session lows against the broadly stronger dollar on Wednesday, after upbeat U.S. economic data added to indications that the recovery would continue to gain momentum.
EUR/USD fell to lows of 1.3581, the weakest since January 10 and was last down 0.67% to 1.3586.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.3545 and resistance at 1.3679, the session high.
The dollar strengthened across the board after data showed that manufacturing activity in the Empire State expanded at the fastest pace since May 2012 this month.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said that its general business conditions index jumped to 12.51 in January from an upwardly revised 2.22 in December. Analysts had expected the index to rise to 3.75.
A separate report showed that U.S. producer price inflation rose at the strongest rate in six months in December.
Producer price inflation rose 0.4% last month, the biggest increase since June, recovering from a 0.1% decline in November and was 1.2% higher from a year earlier.
Core PPI was up 0.3% in December and rose 1.4% on a year-over year basis, compared to expectations for a monthly increase of 0.1% and an annual gain of 1.3%.
The reports came after data on Tuesday showed that U.S. retail sales posted a larger than expected gain in December. The strong data reinforced expectations that the U.S. economic recovery will continue to deepen going into this year and offset lingering concerns over last week’s surprising weak U.S. nonfarm payrolls report.
The common currency shrugged off a report showing that the euro zone’s trade surplus widened to EUR16.0 billion in November from a surplus of EUR14.3 billion in October, due to a decline in imports. Analysts had expected the trade surplus to widen to EUR16.7 billion.
Elsewhere, Germany’s Federal Statistics Office said Wednesday the economy expanded by just 0.4% in 2013 after increasing by 0.7% in 2012, as the crisis in the euro zone acted as a drag on growth. Analysts had been expecting growth of 0.5%.
Elsewhere, the euro was slightly weaker against the yen and the pound, with EUR/JPY down 0.34% to 142.07 and EUR/GBP slipping 0.11% to 0.8310.