EUR/USD hampered near 1.0650 in back-and-forth trading

• The EUR/USD churns sideways for Thursday, near where the day started.
• US jobless claims beat, EU consumer confidence miss, keeping the Euro contained.
• EU and US PMIs to close out the trading week.

The EUR/USD is cycling familiar territory on Thursday, looking for a break higher but thus far unable to find one.

The Euro (EUR) kicked off Thursday trading near 1.0660 before continuing Wednesday's Fed-inspired slide to the day's low near 1.0620. The EUR/USD now remains trapped between those two points, trading up and down and up again as Euro bulls try to break out of the ceiling.

September's preliminary consumer confidence reading came in below expectations at -17.8 compared to the previous -16 and steepening the descent from the forecast -16.5.

US initial jobless claims for the week into September 15th printed notably better than expected, coming in at 201K versus the previous 221K, and erasing the expected 225K increase.

Euro flat for Thursday with Friday PMI in the barrel

Next up on the economic calendar will be Friday's Purchasing Manager Index (PMI) printings for both the EUR and the USD.

the EU's preliminary composite PMI for September is forecast to tick lower from 46.7 to 46.5, while the US side sees PMIs taking a small step higher.

US services PMI is forecast to move from 50.5 to 50.6, while the manufacturing component is expected to print at an even 48, up from the previous 47.9.

EUR/USD technical outlook

Hourly candles still have the EUR/USD on the downside after failing to make a clean break of the 200-hour Simple Moving Average (SMA) near 1.0700. the 100-hour SMA currently sits at 1.0675, providing additional resistance as the pair remains stuck to the 34-hour Exponential Moving Average (EMA) near current price levels just above 1.0660.

On the daily candles, a descending trendline from July's swing high at 1.1250 remains fully intact, and the 200-day SMA sits overhead price action just south of 1.0850, acting as a ceiling for any bullish attempts at upside momentum.

EUR/USD technical levels