Euro close to session lows versus the US dollar

The euro slid to session lows against the US dollar on Tuesday as wariness dominated investor decisions ahead of Thursdays meeting of the European Central Bank and the highly anticipated US non-farm payrolls report on Friday.

EUR/USD fell to 1.3001 at 12:30 GMT, marking the session low for todays trade. Support was likely to be received at June 28th low, 1.2960, while resistance was to be met at current session high, 1.3078.

The common currency found itself under pressure, after Portugal’s Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar resigned late on Monday, as most recent results indicated, that the country’s budget deficit increased in the first quarter of the year. Portugals 10-year government bonds registered an yield of 6.51% on Tuesday, up from 6.40% yesterday.

Additionally, most experts supposed that the European Central Bank would announce on Thursday that a possible exit from its eased monetary policy was not on the horizon at this point.

Earlier today an official from the European Commission said, that the institution had not given a three-day deadline to Greece, during which the country to show proof to its troika of lenders, that it was ready to receive the next tranche of its bailout funding.

Meanwhile, the greenback was continuously supported, following the stronger than projected US ISM manufacturing data from Monday, which encouraged optimism that US economy was right on track. The Institute for Supply Management reported that its manufacturing purchasing managers’ index advanced to 50.9 in June from 49.0 a month ago.

The euro was almost unchanged against the British pound, with EUR/GBP up by a mere 0.02% to 0.8584. Ultimately, the euro retreated against the Japanese yen, as EUR/JPY erased 0.11% to reach 130.01.