The euro eased on currency markets in early European trading on Thursday, with exchanges quoting 1.2994 dollars or 76.92 euro-cents per dollar. The rate was well down from the 1.3083 dollars reference pegging set Wednesday by the European Central Bank as the euro continued to settle back from its record-high levels of a month earlier. Improved U.S. economic data and the effect of higher U.S. interest rates were helping to shore up the dollar of late, analysts said. --SP 1350 Local Time 1050 GMT
