Breaking: Euro plunges to lowest level in more than five years

EUR/USD has extended its slide toward 1.0550 amid unabated dollar strength on Wednesday and touched its lowest level since March 2017.

At the time of press, the pair was down 0.77% on a daily basis at 1.0555 and the US Dollar Index, which tracks the dollar's performance against a basket of six major currencies, was rising 0.65% at 102.96.

The data from the US showed that the international trade deficit in March widened to $125.3 billion from $106.3 billion in February. 

Investors continue to flee to safer assets as they grow increasingly concerned about the coronavirus-related lockdowns in China and the protracted Russia-Ukraine conflict weighing heavily on the global economic activity. In the meantime, the dollar also capitalizes on the US Federal Reserve's willingness to tighten its policy at an aggressive pace to tame inflation.

On the other hand, the European economy faces a tough road ahead with the European Union preparing to sanction Russian gas imports. German economy minister said on Wednesday that they are forecasting the economy to grow by 2.2% in 2022 but added that they would go into a recession if they were to ban Russian energy imports. 

The US Bureau of Economic Analysis will release its first estimate of the first-quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth on Thursday.

EUR/USD technical levels to watch for