The euro was up 0.0079 to 1.5561 against the American dollar, up 0.0055 to 1.5616 against the Canadian dollar and up 2.06 points to 161.27 against the yen. The pound sterling was down 0.0035 to 1.2586 against the euro.

In an interview with Sky TV on Monday, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said that despite the U.S. slowdown, there was ongoing global economic growth.

Earlier, speaking with an Italian news station, Trichet stated that wage moderation was essential, adding that rising wages could hurt job creation.

Trichet's comments came at 11:15 a.m. EDT, at which point the euro increased further toward session highs. At 2:00 a.m. EDT, the euro had dropped to a session low of 1.5367 before starting its climb.

CMC Markets chief FX strategist Ashraf Laidi wrote that the recent drop in oil prices would have been keeping the euro under $1.55 against the greenback. With Nymex crude's rise to a new record high of $126.40 a barrel on Monday, stock markets, such as the commodity-heavy S&P TSX Composite in Toronto, were given a notable boost.

"Currency markets will take this week's busy schedule of US economic reports as the first tangible basis of whether the dollar recovery is warranted by improved US economic data rather than negative reports from the Eurozone or interim pullbacks in oil," Laidi wrote.

"Tuesday's release of US retail sales is expected to show a 0.2% decline last month. A figure at or above zero coupled with CPI above 0.2% on Tuesday is likely to strengthen the dollar's tone, especially against the yen and the pound. But traders will have to wait for 'super data Thursday' for jobless claims, Empire manufacturing, industrial production and Philly Fed survey," he concluded.

All data taken at 1:15 p.m. EDT.

By Ryan Szporer, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , with contributions from Todd Wailoo, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , edited by Nancy Girgis, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it