Investing.com - The euro fell to session lows against the dollar on Monday as the greenback regained ground after falling in the wake of Friday’s softer-than-expected U.S. employment report.
EUR/USD slid 0.10% to 1.2441, off session highs of 1.2509, and re-approaching Friday’s 26-month trough of 1.2356.
The dollar turned lower after data on Friday showed that though employment growth was solid, the U.S. economy added fewer than expected jobs last month.
The Labor Department said 214,000 jobs were created in October, falling short of expectations of 231,000. The U.S. unemployment rate ticked down to a fresh six-year low of 5.8% from 5.9% in September.
The US dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, edged up 0.08% to 87.73, pulling away from lows of 87.30.
In the euro zone, data on Monday showed that Italian industrial production fell 0.9% from in September, and was down 1.1% on a quarter-over-quarter basis.
In the euro zone, data on Monday showed that Italian industrial production fell 0.9% from a month earlier in September, compared to expectations for a 0.2% gain.
The weak data fuelled fears that Friday’s report on third quarter growth will show that Italy has fallen back into a recession after the economy contracted by 0.2% in the second quarter.
A separate report showed that the Sentix index of euro zone investor confidence improved modestly this month, but remained close to 18 month lows.
Research group Sentix said its index of investor confidence improved to minus 11.9 this month, from minus13.7 in October, which was the lowest since May 2013.
Analysts had expected the index to improve to minus 6.9.
The single currency was slightly lower against the yen, with EUR/JPY dipping 0.08% to 142.60, off session lows of 142.07.
Elsewhere, the dollar pared back losses against the yen, with USD/JPY inching up 0.08% to 114.67, after falling to lows of 113.86 earlier.