ECB’s Kazaks: The direction of interest rates is clearly down

Dhwani Mehta FXStreet

European Central Bank (ECB) policymaker Martins Kazaks said on Friday that “the direction of interest rates is clearly down.”

Additional quotes

A significant reduction in rates is still necessary.

Neutral rate is closer to 2% than 3%.

It's right to go step by step on rates.

A bigger rate cut is possible if required.

Market reaction

At the time of writing, EUR/USD is trading modestly flat on the day near 1.0470.

Author

Dhwani Mehta

FXStreet

Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.

GBP/USD eases from tops, retests 1.3630

GBP/USD clings to its daily gains, although it gives away some gains and recedes toward the 1.3630 region on Thursday. Cable’s uptick comes despite the bounce in the Greenback, which manages to regain some balance in the wake of Wednesday’s deep pullback.

EUR/USD turns negative near 1.1670

EUR/USD now trades with modest losses around 1.1670, coming all the way down from earlier tops beyond 1.1700 the figure. The pair’s decline follows the acceptable rebound in the US Dollar as market participants continue to closely follow developments from the US money market.

Gold comes under pressure below $4,500

Gold faces some correction and slips back below the key $4,500 mark per troy ounce on Thursday. The precious metal’s daily decline comes amid the slightly improvement in the US Dollar and rising US Treasury yields across the curve.

Crypto Today: Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP extend gains as ETFs inflows and improved sentiment boost outlook

Cryptocurrency prices are extending gains on Thursday, led by Bitcoin’s (BTC) climb above $70,000. Ethereum (ETH) remains bullish, trading above $2,200, while Ripple (XRP) has recovered above $1.15 as bulls tighten their grip.

US Treasury doubles long-dated bond buybacks: Why are yields rising again?

US Treasury yields stabilize on Thursday after Wednesday’s sharp decline, with the 10-year yield edging back up to 4.672%. The US Treasury doubled the size of some long-dated debt buybacks, a surprise decision that helped ease the recent surge in yields.

$20 billion offered, $2 billion taken: Why Treasury doubled its buyback cap

The US Treasury moved off its own calendar on Wednesday, and that is the part worth sitting with. At 12:32 GMT, the department said it would at least double the size of liquidity support buyback operations in the 10-year to 20-year and 20-year to 30-year sectors, lifting the maximum from $2 billion per operation to at least $4 billion, effective September 9 and running to November 4.