• EUR/USD touches a fresh weekly high on Thursday, albeit lacks follow-through buying.
• Hawkish Fed expectations revive the USD demand and act as a headwind for the major.
• ECB rate cut bets further undermine the Euro and support prospects for deeper losses.

The EUR/USD pair struggles to capitalize on its modest intraday gains back closer to the 1.0800 mark, a fresh weekly high, and turns neutral during the first half of the European session on Thursday. Despite the recent hawkish comments by the European Central Bank (ECB) officials, expectations for an interest rate cut at the start of the second quarter have been growing stronger. This, in turn, undermines the Shared Currency, which, along with the emergence of some US Dollar (USD) dip-buying, acts as a headwind for the currency pair.

The USD Index (DXY), which tracks the Greenback against a basket of currencies, for now, seems to have stalled its retracement slide from the highest level since November 14 touched earlier this week amid the Federal Reserve's (Fed) less dovish outlook. Adding to this, a slew of influential FOMC members recently and the incoming robust US economic data smashed expectations for early interest rate cuts. This remains supportive of elevated US Treasury bond yields, which help revive the USD demand and cap gains for the EUR/USD pair