EUR/USD Recovers To Near 1.0970 But Remains In The Doldrums Due To Hawkish Fed Forecasts
EUR/USD is oscillating within a bounded region in the absence of a decisive catalyst. Increasing weekly claims for unemployment insurance in the United States bolstered apprehensions of a labor market softening. Despite a weakening labor market, Fed policymakers continue to anticipate additional rate increases.

The EUR/USD pair has rebounded from 1.0960 following a corrective move, but investors await the release of the preliminary Eurozone/United States S&P PMI data for April. The major currency pair has remained in a range of 1.0911-1.1000 for the past two trading sessions as the foreign exchange market prepares for a pre-anxiety move ahead of a Federal Reserve (Fed) monetary policy decision.
S&P500 closed on a negative tone for the third consecutive day amid extreme volatility prompted by quarterly earnings season. Thursday's market sentiment was negatively impacted by Tesla's weak earnings. In addition, market participants were cautioned by subpar revenue forecasts due to the possibility of price reductions. The impact of the Fed's decision to raise interest rates is evident in quarterly earnings. According to Refinitiv data, analysts have largely maintained last week's forecast of a near 5% YoY decline in quarterly profits for companies comprising the 500 largest U.S. equities.
Over the past few trading sessions, the US Dollar Index (DXY) has been defending the key support level of 101.60. Despite the release of disappointing Jobless claims data on Thursday, the USD Index maintained the aforementioned support. The US Department of Labor reported an increase in Initial Jobless Claims for the week ending April 4 to 245K, which is greater than the previous release of 240K and estimates of 240K. Accelerating unemployment claims bolstered concerns of a weakening labor market.
Nonetheless, Fed policymakers continue to anticipate additional rate increases from the central bank. Reuters reports that the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Loretta Mester, reaffirmed on Thursday that the Fed has more work to do because US inflation remains too high. He added, "The Fed will need to raise its policy rate above 5% and hold it there for some time."
On the Eurozone front, preliminary Consumer Confidence (April) increased to -17.5 from -18.5 and the previous reading of -19.2. This could be the result of the European Central Bank's (ECB) extraordinary efforts to reduce inflationary pressures.
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