Euro slips on German industrial output data as all eyes on US employment figures

The euro slipped on Friday as data showed German industrial output contracted further in December even as the market awaited the US jobs report due later in the day.

At 07:30 GMT, the EUR/USD traded at 1.1451, down from 1.1461 ahead of the data. At the low, the common currency was down 0.3% on the day.

Industrial production in Germany fell 0.7% from a year earlier in December after declining 0.3% in November. Month-on-month, the output growth came at 0.1% after being unchanged in the previous month but worse than the market consensus of 0.4% growth.

However, revisions of the November numbers both in the year-on-year and monthly figures were upward, providing some positive.

The French budget balance and Spanish industrial output data are other numbers expected on the hour but are unlikely to be market-sensitive.

All eyes are on the US non-farm payroll data due at 13:30 GMT. The market consensus is for job addition to decrease to 234,000 from 252,000 in December and the unemployment rate to stay at 5.6%.

As per estimates of consultancy firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas, the number of job cuts in the US rose to a two-year high of 53,041 in January, 40% of it directly linked to oil prices.

Next week is crucial for the eurozone with German January consumer prices and fourth quarter gross domestic product data scheduled for Thursday and Friday respectively.