Euro shoots up to 2-month high against dollar amid mixed data

The euro soared to a new multi-week high against the US dollar on 30 April as Spanish GDP data for the first quarter surprised on the higher side while negative surprises from Germany and Italy capped the gains.

The EUR/USD jumped to 1.1250, its highest since 26 February, up more than 1% on the day, and adding to the 1.3% rise of Wednesday which was due to a less hawkish FOMC statement than the previous meetings overnight.

The common currency is headed for snapping a nine-month losing streak in April and it is up 4.8% so far in the month. From the 12-year low of 1.0462 touched last month, the EUR/USD pair is now off 7.5%.

The Spanish economy expanded 0.9% quarter-on-quarter in Q1 up from 0.7% in the previous quarter beating analysts' expectations of 0.8%. From a year earlier, the GDP grew 2.6% compared to the previous quarter's 2.0% growth and consensus estimate of 2.5%.

Another important set of data from the region was German labour market indicators. The unemployment change in April was a decline of 8,000 while analysts had been expecting a drop of 13,000 compared to a 14,000 fall in March.

The unemployment rate stood at 6.4%, also meeting the market consensus.

The March eurozone unemployment rate was also steady at 11.3% but analysts had been expecting an improvement to 11.2%. At the same time, the preliminary estimate of consumer price inflation for the region improved to 0% from -0.1% on a year-on-year basis.