Euro hits 7-week high against dollar

The euro touched a seven-week high against the dollar this morning, with the dollar struggling in the wake of more soft economic data and news that foreign investors had been heavy sellers of US assets.

The euro rose as high as $1.37735 during Asian trading, its strongest level since January 2, and was last trading flat at $1.3757, with equity markets offering investors little direction.

New York manufacturing and US housing data were the latest numbers out of the United States to disappoint investors, increasing pressure on the dollar.

The numbers bolstered the case for the Federal Reserve to be patient in its tapering of its huge bond-buying programme, ahead of today's release of minutes from its January policy meeting when it opted to trim asset buying by another $10 billion.

"It (the weak US data) is certainly in the background. There's been a period of nearly three weeks where U.S. data has come in pretty consistently below expectations," said Simon Smith, FxPro's head of research.

“It’s not as obvious as previously that saying the Fed would taper quantitative easing ... is decidedly dollar bullish.”

Bloomberg