EUR/USD remains capped below mid-1.0900s post-US data, Draghi awaited

The EUR/USD pair once again failed to break through its immediate strong hurdle near mid-1.0900s and trimmed some of its early gains following the release of US economic releases. 

Currently trading around 1.0920 level, the pair ran through some fresh offers after data released from the US showed initial weekly jobless claims fell more-than-expected by 19K to 238K for the week ended April 28. The reading was better-than consensus estimates pointing to a drop by 10K to 247K, from previous week's 257K, and continued reflecting the underlying strength in the US labor market. 

Adding to this, US trade deficit during the month of March unexpectedly held stable at $43.7 billion as compared to February's $43.8 billion (revised higher from previous $43.6 billion) and surpassed expectations pointing to a rise to $44.5 billion.

Meanwhile, the nonfarm labor productivity plunged 0.6% in the first quarter of 2017, marking its biggest drop in 15 months and was also worse than 1.8% rise (revised higher from 1.3% reported earlier) recorded in the previous quarter. The negativity, however, seems to have been negated by a jump in labor cost, up 3% during the same period, up sharply from previous quarter's 1.3% rise (revised lower from 1.7% earlier) and 2.5% expected. 

Today's mixed US economic data did little to provide any fresh bullish impetus to the US Dollar, albeit helped limit post-FOMC slide, at least for the time being, ahead of Draghi's speech and Friday's NFP data.

Technical outlook

Valeria Bednarik, Chief Analyst at FXStreet writes, "the 4 hours chart shows the neutral stance persists, with the recovering above an horizontal 20 SMA, and technical indicators turning higher around their mid-lines. As commented on previous updates, a break through the mentioned high should trigger some stops and lead to a test of 1.1000, en route to 1.1045."

"The most relevant supports are the 1.0850, where the pair met buying interest for most of last week, followed by 1.0820, the 50% retracement of the post-US election slide and last week's low" she added.