Investing.com -- EUR/USD fell sharply on Thursday, as the dollar held onto gains ahead of next week's potential surge from a likely interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
The currency pair traded between 1.0925 and 1.1025, before settling at 1.0938 down 0.0085 or 0.77% on the session. EUR/USD has been relatively flat since soaring by more than 3% last Thursday in one of its strongest sessions of the year. With the considerable losses, the pair fell back from one-month highs from Wednesday when it closed above 1.10.
EUR/USD likely gained support at 1.0538, the low from December 3 and was met with resistance at 1.1383, the high from Oct. 16.
Currency traders are expected to remain cautious for the next few sessions until the Federal Open Market Committee releases its monetary policy statement at the conclusion of its two-day meeting next Wednesday. The Federal Funds Rate, the Fed's benchmark rate offered on interbank, overnight loans, has remained at its current level between zero and 0.25% since December, 2008, shortly after the start of the Financial Crisis. Any increase of the targeted range for the Federal Funds Rate is expected to be modest at 25 basis points. The FOMC last approved a rate hike in June, 2006.
A rate hike is viewed as bullish for the dollar, as foreign investors pile into the greenback in order to capitalize on higher yields.
In recent weeks, a plethora of Fed members, including Fed chair Janet Yellen have sent strong indications that the Fed will raise rates at the meeting, as headwinds restraining economic growth continue to fade and the labor market nears maximum employment. Last Friday, the U.S. Labor Department said in a relatively positive report that nonfarm payrolls in November increased by 211,000 while the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.0%.
Last week, initial jobless claims in the U.S. rose by 13,000 to 282,000, exceeding Econoday consensus estimates of 270,000. While initial claims remain relatively low, it marked the highest reading since late-July. The four-week average for new claims also rose to 270,750, up from 269,250 a week earlier.
Elsewhere, U.S. export prices for November released on Thursday fell by 0.6%, slightly below consensus estimates of a 0.3% decrease. In October, export prices fell mildly by 0.2%. On a yearly basis, export prices dipped by 6.3%, a slight improvement from a 6.7% decline a month earlier.
Import prices, meanwhile, inched down by 0.4% slightly less than consensus estimates of a 0.8% decline. Over the last 12 months, import prices are down by 9.4%, a modest improvement from October's reading when annual prices were down by 10.5%. Over the last year, lower import prices have served as a considerable drag on inflation amid a stronger dollar.
The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the strength of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, gained more than 0.60 on Thursday to an intraday high of 97.98, before settling at 97.89. Last week, the index eclipsed 100 to reach a 12-month high, before plunging more than 2% on Dec. 3 when the European Central Bank spooked markets by approving limited easing measures at a Governing Council meeting in Frankfurt.