EUR/USD fluctuates lower ahead of ECB's directions

Euro tilted lower to retreat during the Asian session to see its sixth session retreat since February 5 against the US dollar on the eve of the European Central Bank's decisions and Directions as well as the economic developments and data expected on Thursday by The economies of the euro area and the US economy.

At 4:11 am GMT, the EUR/USD dropped 0.02% to 1.1305 compared to the opening at 1.1307, after reaching its lowest at 1.1303, while a high of 1.1316.

The markets are currently looking for Italy the third largest economy to release its Retail Sales Index, which could reflect a 0.3% rise from a 0.7% decline in December before we see the Eurozone employment reading change that may reflect it to be Remained stable at 0.3%, unchanged from the preliminary reading for the fourth quarter, versus 0.2% in the previous third quarter.

This comes ahead of the release of the seasonally adjusted GDP reading for the eurozone as a whole for the fourth quarter, which may reflect the stability of the widening of 0.2%, unchanged from the previous quarter and the previous reading for the third quarter, and also the preliminary GDP reading at 1.2%,  unchanged from the previous reading and lower than the third quarter at 1.6%.

The ECB meeting is expected to keep interest rates at current zero levels and stabilize the marginal lending rate by 0.25% while remaining at a negative deposit rate of -0.40% in the shadow of the performance of the Eurozone economies in recent times, before we see the talk of the European Central Bank Governor Mario Draghi during the ECB press conference.

On the other hand, we followed Wednesday the European Chief Negotiator for the Brexit file ,Michel Barnier, announcing that the exit talks between the two parties are at a difficult stage during the current period and that no solution has been reached on the crisis of the backstop plan so far, while the President of the European Council Donald Tusk, noting yesterday that there is an external powers meddled in the Brexit vote against Europe and the Union that seeks to influence the democratic choices of European citizens.

On the other hand, the markets are currently waiting for the US economy to disclose the final reading of the Labor Productivity and Costs (LPC) index, which may show productivity growth declining to 1.5% compared to the preliminary reading of the fourth quarter and the previous third quarter's reading of 0.9%, and also might show an increased cost growth to 0.9% Compared to the mutual previous reading of the second and third quarter at 0.9%.

This comes in accordance with the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report for the week ending on March 2, which may reflect stability of 225 thousand requests, unchanged from the previous weekly reading, before the speech of Lael Brainard the member of the U.S. Federal Reserve's Board of Governors, about economic outlook and monetary policy at Princeton University.