* AUD pressured by slumping oil, China market fears
* CAD steadies after dropping on reduced BOC growth expectations
By Lisa Twaronite
TOKYO, Oct 22 (Reuters) - The euro struggled to break above its recent ranges ahead of the European Central Bank meeting later Thursday that could pave the way for an eventual extension of the bank's quantitative easing steps.
The ECB is likely to stop short of actually taking new policy steps as it awaits fresh indications about the outlook for flagging euro zone inflation. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N12L31N
"The consensus view is that we won't see additional stimulus, but the door will be left open," Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG Ltd in Melbourne, said in a note to clients.
"It seems Mario Draghi will try and keep a lid on EUR moves so it may be really hard and risky to be long EUR/USD," he added.
The median probability of the ECB extending its 1 trillion euro asset purchase programme beyond its current September 2016 end date was 70 percent, according to a recent Reuters poll of economists. The same poll saw a 40 percent chance that the ECB would increase its monthly purchases over the next six months. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL9N0WZ019
The euro was slightly higher on the day at $1.1342 EUR= , holding above a 10-day low of $1.1306 touched on Monday but still shy of last week's levels above $1.400.
The Australian dollar wallowed around one-week lows in the wake of Wednesday's sharp fall in Chinese equities markets and a steep drop in crude oil prices. The commodity-linked Aussie is often used as a proxy for China, Australia's main export market.
China's benchmark indexes marked their worst daily performance in five weeks, while crude oil prices fell about 2 percent to three-week lows overnight after the U.S. government reported a bigger-than-expected stockpile buildup. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nZZN2RKR00 O/R
The Aussie edged up about 0.1 percent to $0.7213 AUD=D4 but remained not far from the previous session's low of $0.7200, its lowest level since Oct. 14.
Weaker oil prices also weighed on the Canadian dollar. It skidded more than 1 percent against its U.S. counterpart after the Bank of Canada held its key rate steady as expected and also hinted that any hikes would be in the distant future, as it lowered its growth forecasts for both 2016 and 2017. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N12L0FB
The U.S. dollar was buying C$1.3137 CAD=D4 , steady from late North American trading after rising as high as C$1.3149, its loftiest peak since Oct. 5.
The dollar was steady against the yen at 119.89 yen JPY= .
(Editing by Shri Navaratnam)