EUR/USD sticks to daily gains near mid-1.19s

• EUR/USD gains more than 50 pips on Thursday.
• DXY stabilizes at 3-month lows below mid-92s.
• US T-bond yields' recovery fails to help the buck.

Boosted by the broad-based selling pressure seen on the greenback, the EUR/USD pair stretched higher for the second day in a row on Thursday and refreshed its highest level since November 27 at 1.1956. As of writing, the pair was trading a couple of pips below that level and adding 0.5% on the day.

The US Dollar Index, which struggled to stage a decisive recovery since it closed the previous week below the 93 mark, edged lower on Thursday to its worst level in nearly three months at 92.28. Although the 10-year US T-bond yield is up around 1%, the greenback is having a difficult time gathering strength as the year-end liquidations are not allowing the demand to rise.

Earlier today, the data from the U.S. showed that the international trade deficit increased more than expected while the Chicago PMI advanced to its best level since 2011. Nonetheless, there was no obvious market reaction to neither data. Tomorrow's macroeconomic calendar won't be offering any data that could impact the price action and the price action is likely to quiet down ahead of the New Year's weekend.

Technical outlook

Valeria Bednarik, American Chief analyst at FXStreet, writes, "the 4 hours chart shows that the upward potential remains intact, although there's no momentum around, as technical indicators hold within overbought readings, but mostly flat. Nevertheless, the pair continues developing above a bullish 20 SMA, which accelerated north. Holding at its highest for December, the pair has a short-term intermediate resistance now at 1.1960, November high, en route to the 1.2000 figure."

According to the analyst, technical supports for the pair align at 1.1900, 1.1860 and 1.1830 while resistances are located at 1.1960, 1.2000 and 1.2045.

Today's data from the U.S.

• US: Weekly initial claims was 245,000, unchanged from previous week
• US: Wholesale inventories for November $610.2 billion, up 0.7% from October 2017
• US: International trade deficit was $69.7 billion in November, up $1.6 billion from October
• Chicago PMI advances to best level since March 2011 at 67.6 in December