Euro steady after recent European Central Bank releases [Video]

Today's Highlights

• Euro steady after recent European Central Bank releases

• Pound remains under pressure

Current Market Overview

We start the week with the Euro, Sterling and the US Dollar continuing their recent trends. The Euro remains firm, continuing its recent strong performance most recently bolstered by the European Central Bank (ECB) and Mario Draghi’s comments regarding the unwinding of the ECB’s quantitative easing (QE) programme. Additionally, International Monetary Fund (IMF) growth forecasts for France, Germany, Italy and Spain have also been revised upwards. Today’s German and Eurozone Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) numbers have just been released, coming out slightly weaker than expected, but this has yet to make any significant impact. 

The Pound remains under some pressure, with further political uncertainty surrounding talk of a possible leadership challenge to Mrs. May, however, the UK’s MPs are about to set off on their summer holidays. Meanwhile, the IMF has downgraded their expectations for UK growth to 1.7% from 2% earlier this year, saying that the UK had grown by 0.2% in the first three months of 2017.

Turning to the US, the IMF has also revised down their US outlook, from 2.3% to 2.1%. Along with further political difficulties, real or fake news, the fortunes of the US Dollar will likely be influenced by this week’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) Rate Decision, the Q2 2017 US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures, and a raft of further US data releases, starting with Homes Sales, Services and Manufacturing PMI releases this afternoon.