This afternoon’s European Central Bank meeting briefly took attention away from the European Council Summit in Brussels today. In its last monetary policy statement of the year the European monetary authority confirmed that net asset purchases would end, as planned, ahead of 2019. To the detriment of the Euro, ECB President Draghi confirmed that quantitative easing remained within the central bank’s quiver. The asset purchase plan was the physical manifestation of the economist’s claim to do whatever it takes to save the Eurozone economy. However, from three simple words has come a stockpile of 2.6 trillion Euros worth of corporate and sovereign debt settled within secondary markets in order to stabilise soaring costs of debt that were stifling the Eurozone economy. Worth over a trillion US Dollars in debt each, the ECB has estimated that the emergency spending plan has shaved some 14% off of the value of a Euro in the past years since its announcement and employment. As Theresa May arrived in Brussels for the two-day summit Sterling investors kept a wary eye out. Sterling lost some value as a downbeat Prime Minister conceded that she was not expecting concessions to flow anytime soon. However, perseverance and optimistic news reports kept the Pound in positive territory on the day following the successful defence of her premiership.
Discussion and Analysis by Charles Porter
Japanese Yen With JPY at a new 34 year low versus EUR, the market is set for an ambush by the Bank of Japan if it acts today at the end of their Policy Meeting to support the Yen. The reason that the market is susceptible is because it has convinced itself that the BoJ […]
Too soon to call USD lower Those following the US Dollar’s performance in the markets would have noted a recent downturn accelerating as this week has progressed. There have been two factors driving this sell-off but it is far from certain that either may endure long enough to push the Dollar index back to its […]
Milan, Italy The City of Milan has a late night noise problem and so it has acted unilaterally to resolve it-Italian style. A ban on the sale of take away food including ice cream and pizza after midnight is being imposed to protect the “peace and health of residents.” Here in the UK late night […]