EUR/USD slides closer to 1.05 mark ahead of US weekly jobless claims

The EUR/USD pair extended its bearish reversal slide for the third consecutive session and is now fast approaching the 1.0500 important psychological mark.

Currently trading at fresh multi-day lows, around 1.0510-15 region, the bulls showed little enthusiasm to the preliminary release of Euro-zone inflation figures that showed headline inflation rose at an annualized pace of 2.0% during February, while core CPI rose 0.9% y-o-y. Both the readings were in-line with consensus estimates but market participants remained concerned over a rather slow pick-up in core prices.

Meanwhile, strong follow through greenback buying interest, with the key US Dollar Index surpassing the key 102.00 handle and rising to fresh multi-week highs, further collaborated to the pair's downslide to weekly lows. 

Against the backdrop of growing market consensus that the Fed would eventually move towards raising rates at its March meeting, today's relatively thin US economic docket, featuring the only release of weekly jobless claims, is unlikely to provide any respite for the major ahead of the Fed Chair Janet Yellen's speech on Friday.

Technical levels to watch

A convincing break below the 1.0500 important psychological mark support, the pair is likely to accelerate the fall towards mid-1.0400s, en-route its next major support near 1.0400-1.0390 region. However, a rebound from current support area, leading to a subsequent move back above 1.0530-35 region, might trigger a short-covering rally towards 1.0555-60 horizontal area.