Forex - EUR/USD steady near 14-month highs

Investing.com - The euro was steady close to 14-month highs against the dollar on Thursday, after the Federal Reserve pledged to maintain its quantitative easing program on Wednesday.

EUR/USD hit 1.3541 during European afternoon trade, the session low; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.3556, inching down 0.07%.

The pair was likely to find support at 1.3481, Wednesday’s low and near-term resistance at 1.3586, Wednesday’s high and the pair’s highest since November 18, 2011.

The Fed said it would continue to pursue its easing program at the outcome of its latest policy meeting and reiterated that it would hold interest rates close to zero until the U.S. unemployment rate falls below 6.5%.

Investors were looking ahead to U.S. data on nonfarm payrolls on Friday after Wednesday’s ADP nonfarm payroll report showed that the U.S. private sector added 192,000 jobs in January, above expectations for an increase of 165,000.

Market sentiment remained cautious after data on Wednesday showed that the U.S. economy unexpectedly contracted by 0.1% in the fourth quarter, a sharp slowdown from growth of 3.1% in the preceding quarter.

The euro remained supported after data on Thursday showed that German retail sales fell 1.7% in December, the sharpest drop in more than three years.

Elsewhere, Germany’s largest bank Deutsche Bank posted a surprise net loss of EUR2.2 billion for the fourth quarter.

This was offset by a report showing that the number of unemployed people in Germany fell by 16,000 in January, double expectations for a decline of 8,000 bringing the unemployment rate down to 6.8% from 6.9% in December.

The euro was little changed close to one-year highs against the pound, with EUR/GBP dipping 0.01% to 0.8584 and eased back slightly from 33-month highs against the yen, with EUR/JPY slipping 0.15% to 123.37.

The U.S. was to release the weekly government report on initial jobless claims later in the trading day.