Investing.com - The euro rose to session highs against the broadly weaker dollar on Tuesday, as investors awaited congressional testimony by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday.
EUR/USD hit 1.3131 during European afternoon trade, the highest since July 11; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.3121, gaining 0.46%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.2992, Monday’s low and resistance at 1.3205, the high of July 11.
Investors were anticipating Bernanke’s testimony on Wednesday, amid speculation over the timing of a possible reduction to the bank’s USD85 billion-a-month bond buying program.
The dollar fell sharply last week after Bernanke said the U.S. economy still needed monetary stimulus.
Data on Monday showing that U.S. retail sales rose less-than-expected June fuelled fears over a slowdown in the economic recovery.
The Commerce Department said U.S. retail sales rose 0.4%, slowing from a 0.5% increase in May and undershooting expectations for a 0.8% increase.
This was offset by data showing that the Empire State manufacturing index rose to a five-month high of 9.5 in July from 7.8 in June.
The single currency shrugged off data showing that the ZEW index of economic sentiment in Germany deteriorated unexpectedly in July.
The ZEW Centre for Economic Research said that its index of German economic sentiment fell to 36.3 in the current month from 38.5 in June. Analysts had expected a reading of 39.6.
Elsewhere, official data showed that consumer price inflation in the euro zone held steady at a seasonally adjusted 1.6% in June, unchanged from an initial estimate and in line with expectations.
A separate report showed that euro zone exports fell 2.3% in June from April, while imports declined 2.2%. The currency bloc posted a trade surplus of EUR14.6 billion from EUR15.2 billion in April.
The euro was higher against the pound, with EUR/GBP rising 0.48% to 0.8691.
Sterling fell to session lows against the euro and the dollar earlier after official data showed that consumer price inflation in the U.K. rose slightly less-than-expected in June.
The Office for National Statistics said U.K. consumer price inflation rose 2.9% from a year earlier in June, coming in below expectations for a 3.0% increase and up from 2.7% in May.
The euro was little changed against the yen, with EUR/JPY dipping 0.03% to 130.38.
The U.S. was to release official data on consumer price inflation and a report on industrial production later in the trading day.
