Euro rebounds from five-week low against dollar

Euro rose against the dollar away from early March lows, following earlier data from the euro zone and the US, the world's largest economy, and ahead of a speech by Federal Reserve governor Jerome Powell. 

As of 02:55 GMT, EUR/USD rose 0.27% to 1.2273 from the opening of 1.2240, with a session-high at 1.2280, and a five-week low at 1.2215. 

Earlier German data showed industrial production fell 1.6%, compared to a 0.1% rise in January, while analysts expected a 0.2% rise, as French budget deficit widened sharply to 28.5 billion euros in February from 10.8B in January. 

French trade deficit shrank to 5.2 billion euros from 5.4 billion, beating expectations of 5.3 billion, while the retail PMI for the whole zone slowed down to 50.1 from 52.3 in February.

European Central Bank member Benoît Cœuré said in earlier remarks that the euro zone economies are still in need of more easing policies due to trade tensions, while calling out the fight against globalism as a wrong solution to trade disputes.  

Cœuré warned that US trade tariffs could lead to adverse consequences on the global economy, while moving on to note that the rise in wages is reflecting slowly on prices, especially amid Brexit uncertainty. 

Otherwise, earlier US data showed the unemployment rate settled at 2001 lows at 4.1% in March, missing expectations of 4.1%, while average earnings rose 0.3% as expected, up from 0.1% in February. 

The economy created 103 thousand new jobs in December, down from 326K in February, revised from 314K, and missing expectations of 188K. 

US President Donald Trump renewed his attacks on the European Union today, accusing EU members of following a unified approach "against the US in trade", and alleging that they send everything to the US while not importing US products.