LONDON (AFX) - The euro weakened at midday as investors took profits following its recent gains, dealers said. They said euro zone industrial output figures for February, released this morning, were a further negative for the single currency. "The euro has gone a reasonably long way in the last 24 hours so profit-taking was always going to be on the cards at some point," Barclays Capital currency strategist Jane Foley said. "The weak industrial output figures may have been enough of a trigger, even if the market knew they wouldn't be as positive as what we've seen in the US," she said. 4Cast currency strategist Paul Bednarczyk also put the euro's slide down to profit-taking. "There's been a growing fear that the market's gone too far in supporting the euro, and that when the fall comes it could be sharp and rather nasty," he said. Bednarczyk said market participants will start to worry if it falls below 0.8870 usd. "If it goes under 0.8840 usd, there'll be quite a bailout," he said. Dealers said today's US data, including weekly jobless claims and the Philadelphia Fed's business survey, will be closely watched in light of yesterday's cautious message from US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan. In the UK, sterling retraced its earlier gains, tracking the euro lower despite the British Chambers of Commerce's upbeat quarterly economic survey confirming that the UK economy has turned the corner.