Inside the Hourglass,
Sovereign states must increasingly feel as though their countries are built upon the bedrock of the sand in a rapidly shrinking hourglass; assuming a position in an ever-collapsing pool, occasionally colliding with each other and frequently going under. Today was the turn of Euro to take a turn for the worse. Markets reacted badly to Italy’s delay in publishing their fiscal spending plan yesterday. Selling Italian assets instruments in their billions, equity markets tumbled with bond yields hitting fresh highs. The Euro was also hampered by the perceived political risk within Italy, allowing the value of the Euro against the Dollar to fall through 1.17. With the announcement that the budget deficit will now only be curtailed to 2.4% (instead of a promised 1.9%), the Euro lost further value with a loss of value equivalent to 1.84% in 48 hours. The revised fiscal expansion by the newly formed coalition suggested to markets that the more dominant League party was succumbing to populist pressure rebelling against the Eurozone’s bias towards austerity and fiscal responsibility. With EURUSD breaking below 1.16 once again, the value of 1 Pound against the Dollar also dropped bearishly towards 1.3000. Considerable resistance was found at this level, forcing a sharp and immediate devaluation of the US Dollar. For now, the drama in Italy still appears largely contained within the borders of the Mediterranean, stopping short of the rest of mainland Europe. This is apparent whilst domestic bonds rally and the stock market loses as much as 4% on the day. However, the risk of contagion cannot be continually underplayed as it was post-Brexit. If Italy falls in either direction, it could still spell disaster for the Eurozone.
Discussion and Analysis by Charles Porter
Click Here to Subscribe to the SGM-FX Newsletter
Will they, won’t they It’s one week to the day until the next Bank of England decision. It will prove critical to the value of GBP and perhaps prove to be a defining feature of the currency market for at least the first quarter of this calendar year. Bank rate in the UK currently sits […]
Inflation With markets as ever getting ahead of themselves by many having decided that the inflation peak is a yesterday thing, there is a dawning realisation that with the current levels of USA 6.5%, 9.2% UK and 10.4% EU as at Dec 2022, inflation is not only well above target of 2% but is still […]
UK Government Borrowing By Numbers Many people have a disconnect when it comes to linking government finances with their own-bring on the idea of teaching finance as part of the school curriculum-however, yesterday’s release showing the government borrowing figures fall into the category of both attention grabbing but so eye watering that many will likely […]