EUR/USD higher ahead of Fed, ECB policy decisions

EUR/USD is firmly higher on Thursday due to diminishing expectations for the Fed to keep raising interest rates at the same aggressive pace. A rise in weekly jobless claims suggests that the labour market is slowing down.

EUR/USD is currently 0.38% higher having rallied from a low of 1.0489 to a high of 1.0564 on the day so far. Weekly jobless claims rose to 230K, as expected.

Continuing claims rose to 1.671M, topping the forecast of 1.6M and the data comes ahead of next week’s FOMC meeting. Money markets show there is a 91% chance that the policy-setting FOMC will raise rates by half a point next week, and just a 9% chance there will be another 75 basis point increase.

There will be more key data events coming up before the December 14 meeting. The Producer Price Index and the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment survey on Friday as well as November’s Consumer Price Index are due. Investors will be on the watch for any signs that the Fed is getting ready to pause its hikes.