The euro was strong today, rising against all other most-traded currencies, with the exception of the Australian dollar. The possible reason for the rally was the market sentiment, which was recovering after confusing tweets from US President Donald Trump. Macroeconomic reports released in the eurozone today were mixed.
Markets entered a risk-off mode after the news broke out that Trump halts negotiations with Democrats about a big stimulus package until the November presidential election concludes. Yet soon afterward, perhaps realizing that such a decision hurt his chances for re-election, Trump announced that the government will release a stimulus package for airlines and other smaller relief packages. While the announcement hurt investors’ confidence, the negative impact did not last long, and it looks like markets have returned to a risk-on mode by now.
As for today’s macroeconomic data in the eurozone, Destatis reported that German industrial production fell by 0.2% in August, whereas markets were expecting about the same 1.4% rate of growth as in July. Year-on-year, industrial production slumped by 9.6%. According to data from the French Ministry of Economy and Finance, France’s trade balance logged a deficit of â¬7.7 billion in August, up from â¬7.0 billion in July, while economists had predicted a decrease to â¬6.5 billion. A report from Istat showed that Italian retail sales climbed by 8.2% in August, exceeding the median forecast of a 3.8% increase.
EUR/USD rallied from 1.1734 to 1.1770 as of 13:50 GMT today. EUR/CHF gained from 1.0767 to 1.0786, reaching the high of 1.0797 intraday. At the same time, EUR/AUD declined from 1.6520 to 1.6465, though the decline was not nearly enough to counter the big rally of the previous two sessions.
If you have any questions, comments, or opinions regarding the Euro, feel free to post them using the commentary form below.