EUR/GBP eases off monthly highs, holds above 0.90 ahead of Draghi

The EUR/GBP pair jumped to its highest level since September 13 at 0.9033 during the European trading hours before starting to consolidate its gains. As of writing, the pair was trading at 0.9004, up 0.37% on the day.

Earlier in the day, giving an update on the developments after the fifth round of negotiations, Michel Barnier, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, said that Brexit talks had reached a deadlock during a joint press conference with the UK's Brexit Secretary David Davis. Davis also argued that a decisive progress would be seen in the next two months and further added they still had disagreements on citizens' rights. Despite the shared currency's weakness during the day, the heavy selling pressure witnessed on the GBP fueled the pair's rise. In fact, the GBP also lost nearly 100 pips against the USD.

• EU’s Barnier: Brexit talks have reached deadlock

At 14:30 GMT, the ECB President Mario Draghi will be speaking at a panel discussion at Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington DC. In the early Asian session on Thursday, the ECB's Chief Economist Peter Praet argued that a small amount of QE tapering over a long period of time would be appropriate, putting the euro under a modest selling pressure against its peers. At the moment, the Euro Index is at 94.66, losing 0.1%.

• ECB’s Praet opens the door to a ‘lower for longer’ QE taper policy - ING

Technical levels to consider:

The pair could encounter the initial hurdle at 0.9030 (daily high) ahead of 0.9085 (Sep. 12 high) and 0.9200 (psychological level/Sep. 7 high). On the downside, supports are located at 0.9000 (psychological level), 0.8905 (Oct. 9 low) and 0.8850 (Oct. 4 low).

• EUR/GBP expected to fail near 0.9030 – Commerzbank