Currency Note EUR


USD: Three and out?

The Fed’s final meeting of the year has been setting the direction for the US dollar for weeks. After a long period of holds, interest rates have been slashed by 75 basis points (or 0.75%) since September. Politics aside, many experts think 2026 will give policymakers...

EUR: ECB eyes growth upgrade

Christine Lagarde dropped a strong hint that the European Central Bank (ECB) would soon upgrade its 2025 full-year GDP forecasts for the second time in three months. The ECB noted that the eurozone had navigated the trade war better than expected, with currency...

GBP: Prepping for Thursday

Sterling doesn’t have anywhere to hide after last night’s decision in Washington. In fact, it has its own interest rate decision to navigate a week from today. That comes after a busy run of economic releases that begins with a crucial GDP report bright and early...

Fed cuts and warns of policy tensions

At its last meeting of 2025, the Federal Reserve voted to cut interest rates by a quarter point (0.25%). That decision put to bed weeks of frenzied speculation from across global markets and came with enough of a dovish slant to send the US dollar down by about half a...
Thoughts turn to long-term risks to sterling

Thoughts turn to long-term risks to sterling

Some of the froth came off the pound’s recent gains yesterday, but it’s still clinging on to a position close to a six-week high against the euro. The background to exchange rate movements right now is interest rates and some volatility can be expected. The US Federal...

USD: Markets wait for Fed decision

Positive data on job openings yesterday failed to impress the currency markets – or at least, not as much as they were concerned at the interest rate cut expected today. We’ll get that decision at 7pm UK time.

EUR: Mixed picture for euro

There was no coherent picture for the single currency yesterday, as it headed in wildly different directions – a 0.75% gain on the yen and smaller gains on GBP, USD and NOK but in the red against AUD and others. Christine Lagarde will be talking shortly, but will...

GBP: Sterling drops off the pace

The froth came off the pound’s recent gains yesterday, with roughly 0.5% losses against the Aussie dollar but rather less against the US dollar and euro. The data picture picks up over the week, all leading up to the BoE’s decision a week tomorrow, so expect...

Fed to move first on rates, but will BoE follow?

We’re in interest rate season and the US Federal Reserve goes today, with a 25-basis point cut widely expected. Any deviation from that is likely to hit the dollar one way or another. It follows a stonking US employment report yesterday, with 430,000 new jobs added....

USD: Risk-off tone helps dollar

Monday began on a more cautious note than last time out, as is typically the case before a bid Federal Reserve decision. Slowness out the gate was a welcome help for the US dollar and allowed it to record marginal daily advances over both the pound and the euro....