For the 24 hours to 23:00 GMT, the EUR declined 0.71% against the USD and closed at 1.1189, after Greece postponed its debt repayment of €300 million to the IMF, due on 05 June. It also announced that it will bundle all four of it payments totalling €1.6 billion and pay them all at the end of the month.
The greenback traded on a stronger footing, on the back of better-than-expected initial jobless claims report.
Data showed that number of Americans claiming jobless benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 276,000 in the week ended May 30, from prior week’s level of 284,000. The figure was expected to hit 278,000.
Separately, the IMF in an unexpected move has warned the US Fed to hold off from raising interest rates till the first half of 2016, until there are signs of a pickup in wages and inflation. Additionally, the agency also downgraded the US economic growth forecast for 2015 from 3.1% to 2.5%, while projecting the nation to grow 3.0% in 2016.
In the Asian session, at GMT0300, the pair is trading at 1.1214, with the EUR trading 0.22% higher from yesterday’s close.
The pair is expected to find support at 1.1136, and a fall through could take it to the next support level of 1.1057. The pair is expected to find its first resistance at 1.1337, and a rise through could take it to the next resistance level of 1.1459.
Trading trends in the pair today are expected to be determined by the US unemployment claims coupled with non-farm payrolls data, scheduled later today.
The currency pair is trading below its 20 Hr and 50 Hr moving averages.