Investing.com - The euro rose to its highest level in four days against the broadly weaker dollar on Tuesday as the dollar remained under pressure ahead of Wednesday’s Federal Reserve minutes.
EUR/USD hit highs of 1.3808, the strongest since April 2 and was last up 0.36% to 1.3791.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.3736, the session low and near-term resistance at 1.3819, the high of April 2.
The dollar came under heavy selling pressure as investors awaited Wednesday’s minutes of the Fed’s March meeting for further indications on the future direction of monetary policy.
Last week’s U.S. payrolls report came in slightly below expectations, while Fed Chair Janet Yellen said recently that slack in labor markets showed accommodative policies will still be needed for some time.
Demand for the euro continued to be underpinned after comments by European Central Bank officials on Monday tempered expectations for quantitative easing.
Last week the ECB left the door open to further stimulus measures, saying that unconventional monetary policy instruments may be necessary to avert the risk of ongoing low inflation in the euro zone.
On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund said the ECB should consider all unconventional measures, including quantitative easing, and should implement them as soon as they are ready.
In its quarterly World Economic Outlook report, the IMF said it expects the global economy to grow by 3.6% this year, and 3.9% in 2015, both 0.1 percentage point lower than in January.
The fund said it expects the euro zone economy to expand by 1.2% this year and 1.5% in 2015, both 0.1 percentage point higher than in its January forecast.
Elsewhere, the euro was lower against the firmer yen, with EUR/JPY down 0.54% to 140.89.
The yen was boosted after Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda indicated Tuesday that the bank was unlikely to implement further stimulus measures in the short term. Kuroda said growth and inflation were likely to continue to pick up in the coming months despite a sales tax increase in April.
Earlier Tuesday, the BoJ voted to keep its key policy target of increasing base money unchanged at an annual pace of ¥60 trillion to ¥70 trillion after ending its two-day policy meeting.