EUR/USD consolidates in a directionless trading session, just below mid-1.1800s

The EUR/USD pair now seems to have entered a bullish consolidation phase and oscillated within 20-25 pips narrow trading range just below mid-1.1800s.

The pair's overnight pull-back from fresh 2-1/2 year highs stalled near 1.1830 level amid lack of any strong follow through greenback recovery. It is worth reporting that the key US Dollar Index sank to its lowest level since early May 2016 in reaction to Wednesday's weaker ADP report, which might have lowered expectations from the official NFP data, due for release on Friday.

Meanwhile, today's mixed results from the final Euro-zone services PMI prints went unnoticed and did little to dent the prevalent bullish sentiment surrounding the shared currency. Moreover, the incoming solid Euro-zone macro data have been showing signs of strong economic activity in the region and might now contribute towards limiting any sharp immediate downslide for the major.

Today's US economic docket features the release of weekly jobless claims, ISM non-manufacturing PMI and factory orders data, which would be looked upon for some short-term trading impetus ahead of this week's major release - the keenly watched US monthly jobs report on Friday.

Technical outlook

Valeria Bednarik, Chief Analyst at FXStreet writes, "Tuesday's low at 1.1785 is the key support, as below it, the downward corrective movement can gather momentum and extend down to 1.1750 first, and 1.1715 later on the day. A recovery above 1.1870 on the other hand, should see the pair returning to the 1.1910 level, en route to 1.1950."