How will U.S. initial jobless claims impact EUR/USD?

NEW YORK (Forex News Now) – The Department of Labor is due on Thursday to publish key data on U.S. initial jobless claims, in one of the day’s major realtime forex news events.

The report is expected to show that the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits slid to 455,000 last week, according to three major online FX trading news outlets, up from 462,000 during the previous week.

The department is scheduled to release the report at 12:30 P.M., GMT; as such, the data is likely to dominate European afternoon currency market trading.

However, the release of the report will may be overshadowed later by a data on manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia area, which is due to be released shortly afterwards.

According to EUR USD analysis, a smaller-than-expected drop in claims, or even an increase, could lift EUR/USD toward short-term resistance around Friday’s high, 1.4158.

But should the data show a greater-than-forecast drop, the currency pair could be pushed toward short-term support around Wednesday’s low, 1.3698.

Of course, the latter eventuality could whet FX traders’ risk appetites, which would likely benefit the euro against the dollar.