Investing.com - The U.S. dollar turned broadly lower against the other major currencies on Friday, after the release of mixed U.S. data as investors locked-in profits following the greenback's recent rally.
During U.S. morning trade, the dollar was lower against the euro, with EUR/USD rising 0.39% to 1.3055.
The euro found support after EU leaders endorsed "structural" budgetary assessments, granting countries such as France, Spain and Portugal extra time to bring down deficits.
Speaking at a meeting in Brussels, EU officials said balanced budgets remained the goal however, and there was no talk of large-scale spending programs or bond issues.
Meanwhile, EU and International Monetary Fund officials continued to work on a package for Cyprus, with hopes of presenting the outline of a bailout programme to euro zone finance experts later in the day.
Earlier Friday, fficial data showed that consumer price inflation remained unchanged at an annualized rated of 1.8% in February, in line with expectations.
Core consumer price inflation, which excludes food, energy, alcohol, and tobacco, also remained unchanged last month at 1.3%, as expected.
The greenback was also lower against the pound, with GBP/USD adding 0.18% to 1.5109.
Elsewhere, the greenback was sharply lower against the yen and the Swiss franc, with USD/JPY dropping 0.63% to trade at 95.51 and with USD/CHF retreating 0.82% to 0.9394.
Official data earlier showed that producer price inflation in Switzerland rose 0.1% in February, less than the expected 0.2% rise, after a 0.1% decline the previous month.
In Japan, the parliament approved Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's nominee for central bank governor, Haruhiko Kuroda, and nominees for the two deputy governor posts, clearing the way for radical monetary easing measures.
The greenback was lower against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD slipping 0.22% to 1.0199, AUD/USD edging up 0.17% to 1.0402 and NZD/USD climbing 0.58% to 0.8268.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.49% to 82.45.
In the U.S., the University of Michigan said, in a preliminary report, that its index of consumer sentiment dropped to 71.8 in March from a reading of 77.6 the previous month, compared to expectations for a rise to 78.0.
Earlier in the day, official data showed that U.S. industrial production rose 0.7% in February, beating expectations for a 0.4% increase, after a 0.1% fall the previous month.
In addition, the Empire State manufacturing index fell less-than-expected in March, ticking down to 9.2 from a reading of 10 the previous month. Analysts had expected the index to decline to 8.4 this month.
A separate report showed that core consumer price inflation, which excluded food and energy, rose 0.2% in February after a 0.3% increase the previous month, in line with expectations.
Consumer price inflation rose 0.7% last month, more than the expected 0.5% increase, following a flat reading in January.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.