Bernanke: more, more, more…

EUR/USD

Ben Bernanke’s speech stirred up the market yesterday, reviving hopes for the Fed’s further support of the economy through asset buying and other unconventional measures. The Fed’s chief emphasized that to reduce unemployment the country needs a higher growth rate. He also mentioned that in the near future unemployment might decline even at a slower pace than now. Unfortunately, markets preferred to ignore Bernanke’s doubts and interpreted them as hints at new bond purchases. This interpretation immediately spurred the across-the-board weakening of the dollar. The single currency fluctuated wildly. In the European session it fell below 1.32, but at the end more…

Expensive oil: stimulus to spend or threat to growth?

EUR/USD

Last Friday was a quiet day for European markets, but quite a busy one for the US exchanges. Actually, it doesn’t seem to be a surprise, considering loads of important statistics which came from the States on Friday. First, data on inflation were published. Due to the fuel price growth the consumer price index gained 0.4% in February and the annual growth rate remained at 2.9%, as was generally expected by economists. It’s quite reassuring to hear about easing of the core inflation. However, in the coming months it most likely will go up due to the effect of energy prices more…

The carry trade is dead – Long live the carry trade!

USD

Yesterday the dollar managed to take some more gains against most of its rivals. In particular, the single currency fell to 1.3020 against 1.3060 a day before and overnight even closely approached 1.30. It should be mentioned that now interest in the dollar is triggered by a bit different factors than in the midst of the crisis. Now the U.S. currency is bought as an instrument for investment in the U.S. markets, which are currently showing a better growth than the European ones. At the same time the large emerging markets are either trying to limit the capital inflow to their more…

Does Greece take a back seat, giving way to Spain?

EUR/USD

The single currency didn’t continue last week’s downturn yesterday. It was good news, but at the same time the currency didn’t grow on the subsiding fears around Greece. And this is already the signal to give a closer look to the issues currently disturbing the markets. As always there are two directions: Europe and the USA. However, while concerns about America seem to be the whims of a spoilt child, European issues look like life-and-death ones. Tonight we’ll see the Fed’s decision on the monetary policy. No factual action is expected: everybody looks forward to learning the committee’s evaluation of the more…

Moody’s EU rating cuts put pressure on the markets

EUR/USD

Moody’s unexpected decision to downgrade 6 European countries has provoked an increase in demand for safe assets during the London session. The single currency didn’t manage to push the attack, having stopped at 1.3283. The EUR sales brought the currency pair below Friday’s low in the area of 1.3250. It’s really of interest for what time the pair will stay under pressure. After all, the market is already so much lopsided in relation to positioning plus the information about the ratings can hardly be called new as well. As a rule, the markets show the strongest reaction to the first steps more…