Investing.com - The euro remained close to a three-week low against the U.S. dollar on Friday, after the release of relatively positive U.S. employment data, as Thursday's comments by Federal Reserve officials continued to weigh.
EUR/USD hit 1.2999 during European afternoon trade, the pair's lowest since December 11; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.3024, shedding 0.18%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.2929, the low of December 11 and resistance at 1.3097, the high of December 12.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the U.S. economy added 155,000 jobs in December, more than the expected 150,000 increase, after an upwardly revised 161,000 rise the previous month.
In addition, the U.S. employment rate remained unchanged at 7.8% last month, compared with expectations for a decline to 7.7%.
Meanwhile, markets were jittery after the minutes of the Fed's December policy meeting showed that officials began debating an end to bond-buying as early as this year even while preparing to boost stimulus to a new record.
Investors also remained cautious over the longer term outlook in the U.S., with negotiations on raising the debt ceiling still to come in February.
In the euro zone, Markit research group showed that Spain's service sector purchasing managers' index improved to 44.3 in December from a reading of 42.4 the previous month, beating expectations for a rise to 42.8.
The report came after official data showed that retail sales in Germany rose by 1.2% in November, beating expectations for a 0.8% increase, after a 1.3% decline the previous month.
Also Friday, preliminary data showed that consumer price inflation in the euro zone remained unchanged at an annualized rated of 2.2% last month. Analysts had expected consumer price inflation to tick down to 2.1% in December.
Elsewhere, the euro was higher against the pound with EUR/GBP adding 0.28%, to hit 0.8126.
Later in the day, the Institute of Supply Management was to release a report on U.S. service sector activity.
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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.
