Investing.com - The euro moved lower against the dollar on Thursday though it held range bound after U.S. fiscal uncertainty and spotty data quashed appetite for risk-on asset classes and sent investors cautiously chasing attractive safe-haven dollar positions.
In U.S. trading on Thursday, EUR/USD was down 0.32% at 1.3482, up from a session low of 1.3473 and off from a high of 1.3532.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.3462, Wednesday's low, and resistance at 1.3538, Wednesday's high.
Congressional Republicans and Democrats worked on Thursday to craft a budget proposal to avoid an October partial government shutdown.
The House of Representatives approved legislation to fund government through Dec. 15, however, lawmakers also voted to defund President Barack Obama's healthcare bill, the Affordable Care Act.
The Senate was expected to strip the bill of that language.
Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives notified members that a vote on raising the debt limit could come as early as Friday.
The U.S. Congress is struggling to pass a spending bill to keep the government funded beyond October 1.
While House Majority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, says he doesn't see a government shutdown unfolding, uncertainty over such a possibility in recent sessions weakened the dollar to attractive levels on Thursday.
The greenback also saw demand from those seeking a liquid, safe-harbor asset class to digest data and mull the fate of Federal Reserve stimulus programs such as its USD85 billion in monthly bond purchases.
Industry data released earlier showed that U.S. pending home sales dropped 1.6% in August, more than an expected 1.0% decline following a downwardly revised 1.4% contraction the previous month.
Also on Thursday, official data showed that the U.S. economy expanded by 2.5% in the second quarter, just shy of expectations for a 2.6% expansion.
Pushing the dollar up, however, were better-than-expected numbers out of the labor market.
The U.S. Department of Labor said that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless claims in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 20 fell by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 305,000, from a downwardly revised 310,000 the previous week.
Analysts were expecting the figure to rise to 325,000, which gave the dollar support by rekindling expectations for the Federal Reserve to begin tapering the pace of its monthly bond purchases, which weaken the dollar by driving down interest rates to spur recovery.
Last week, the Fed said it wanted to see more evidence of a sustained economic recovery before it reduced stimulus.
Elsewhere, the euro was up against the pound and up against the yen, with EUR/GBP trading up 0.07% at 0.8416 and EUR/JPY trading up 0.22% at 133.43.
The yen moved lower against most major currencies amid expectations that the government will cut corporate taxes to spur recovery, which sent investors ditching the Japanese currency in favor of Japanese equities.
On Friday in the euro zone, Germany is to produce preliminary data on consumer inflation, while France is to release a report on consumer spending. ECB President Mario Draghi is to speak at an event in Milan.
The U.S. is to round up the week with revised data on consumer sentiment and inflation expectations from the University of Michigan as well as data on personal income and expenditure.
In U.S. trading on Thursday, EUR/USD was down 0.32% at 1.3482, up from a session low of 1.3473 and off from a high of 1.3532.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.3462, Wednesday's low, and resistance at 1.3538, Wednesday's high.
Congressional Republicans and Democrats worked on Thursday to craft a budget proposal to avoid an October partial government shutdown.
The House of Representatives approved legislation to fund government through Dec. 15, however, lawmakers also voted to defund President Barack Obama's healthcare bill, the Affordable Care Act.
The Senate was expected to strip the bill of that language.
Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives notified members that a vote on raising the debt limit could come as early as Friday.
The U.S. Congress is struggling to pass a spending bill to keep the government funded beyond October 1.
While House Majority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, says he doesn't see a government shutdown unfolding, uncertainty over such a possibility in recent sessions weakened the dollar to attractive levels on Thursday.
The greenback also saw demand from those seeking a liquid, safe-harbor asset class to digest data and mull the fate of Federal Reserve stimulus programs such as its USD85 billion in monthly bond purchases.
Industry data released earlier showed that U.S. pending home sales dropped 1.6% in August, more than an expected 1.0% decline following a downwardly revised 1.4% contraction the previous month.
Also on Thursday, official data showed that the U.S. economy expanded by 2.5% in the second quarter, just shy of expectations for a 2.6% expansion.
Pushing the dollar up, however, were better-than-expected numbers out of the labor market.
The U.S. Department of Labor said that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless claims in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 20 fell by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 305,000, from a downwardly revised 310,000 the previous week.
Analysts were expecting the figure to rise to 325,000, which gave the dollar support by rekindling expectations for the Federal Reserve to begin tapering the pace of its monthly bond purchases, which weaken the dollar by driving down interest rates to spur recovery.
Last week, the Fed said it wanted to see more evidence of a sustained economic recovery before it reduced stimulus.
Elsewhere, the euro was up against the pound and up against the yen, with EUR/GBP trading up 0.07% at 0.8416 and EUR/JPY trading up 0.22% at 133.43.
The yen moved lower against most major currencies amid expectations that the government will cut corporate taxes to spur recovery, which sent investors ditching the Japanese currency in favor of Japanese equities.
On Friday in the euro zone, Germany is to produce preliminary data on consumer inflation, while France is to release a report on consumer spending. ECB President Mario Draghi is to speak at an event in Milan.
The U.S. is to round up the week with revised data on consumer sentiment and inflation expectations from the University of Michigan as well as data on personal income and expenditure.